Sounds Like Folly

Farm Trooper Quoteage.

2011-06-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

A lone Farm Trooper has spent his spare time, between Hoth placements and steller runs on a clunky EX-F, scanning the verse for random signals. Here are a collection of what his eyes have read, dictated at his ranch on Corellia.

Choking: A love/hate relationship for fans.

2011-06-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

After catching the last 10 minutes of the Canuks vs, Bruins. I thought these notes from a paper on choking, the yips, and panicking might help sooth things over.

Clark, T.P., Tofler, I. R., & Lardon, M.T. (2005) The sport psychiatrist and golf. Clinics in Sports Medicine. 24(4), 959-971.

Purpose: The authors review pre-performance routine and methods for optimizing focus, and discuss the science behind being "in the zone." The authors also discuss how acute performance failure, or "choking," is best understood as being three separate disorders.

Method: Golf is like “mental chess,” and that the mental component is possibly the toughest part of playing golf. The mental chess of golf is the challenge of how well a player focuses on the shot at hand, rather than being taken off-task by thoughts, emotions, or poorly controlled physiological arousal.

Neuroelectric measures, such as EEG and ERP techniques, have findings that suggest that the same attentional mechanisms are affected by hypnosis and dissociation.
EEG showing hemispheric operational control in professional golfers.

Results: Golf is uniquely challenging for excessive down time leads to obsessive thinking and distraction, as well as amplification of pre-existing negative self perceptions, performance anxiety, panic, and affective over arousal.

Sport psychiatrist can help the athlete interrupt ironic processes by first recognizing when they occur, and then developing strategies to lessen cognitive and emotional overload. Prompt and effective management allows the golfer to attend to the task of preparing to hit his next shot.
Researchers at UCSD and Scripps Research Institute hypothesized that the zone state may be a manifestation of an adaptive dissociation, and that similarities exist between the zone, hypnosis, and dissociation. They characterized the athletic zone as having four essential components: (1) enhanced attentional focus, (2) time slowing, (3) sense of detachment, and (4) super-normal performance.
Three distinct forms of performance failure:

Panicking; when the mind goes blank, and the player relies on instinctive behaviors and loses the ability to think about what steps are needed to attain the goal/objective.
Chocking; not about reversion to instinct but rather about the loss of instinct or the loss of previously mastered motor programs. Explicit monitoring interrupts the implicit motor execution programs.
The "yips"; the yips is often referred to as a focal dystonia. Dystonia is characterized as a paroxysmal movement disorder in which an unwanted muscle contraction, or twitch, leads to an involuntary movement. Symptoms of the yips, such as jerks during execution of shots, often result in miss-hits.

Importance: Athletic zone states may be a subset of flow phenomena and might be understood by looking at models of dissociation and hypnosis. Authors also gave a brief summary of treatments for performance failure.

Nude Beach Thoughts

2011-06-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Farm Trooper Quoteage

2011-01-28T01:08:00.000-08:00

A lone Farm Trooper has spent his spare time, between Hoth placements and stellar runs on a clunky EX-F, scanning the verse for random signals. Here is another piece of what his eyes have read, dictated at his ranch on Corellia.

Nude Beach Thoughts

2011-01-23T02:54:00.000-08:00

Check out the following for some details about the 1000 True Fan Theory.

REST's Applications Within Cognitive Science

2010-12-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

When the first humans began to explore the dark crevices of the world, they were the first to experience a situation where they could deprive their senses of their harsh daily lives. Deep within those caverns, animal cults and secret societies emerged, as more complex and abstract ideas were experienced through ecstatic visions (Hayden, 2003). However, our ancestors did not realize that those visions came from within themselves, the brains that were shaped by cells shaped by molecules shaped by atoms shaped by subatomic atoms shaped by quantum probabilities. We do know these things and because of this we have developed a scientific method in order measure and analyze the world around, and inside us, as objectively as possible.

The sensory deprivation conditions that our early ancestors experienced in those caves was able to evoke in individuals a religious mania and visions, which has been termed a Sacred Ecstatic Experience (SEE)[see Hayden (2003) for detailed discussion]. The modern human has processed those dark caves, scientifically and ritualistically, to become one of many well-formulated induction techniques of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) through the use of contemporary floatation tanks. Restricted Environmental Simulation Therapy (REST) utilizes these tanks in order to help people heal. I hope to show that REST provides a new avenue for psychophysiological statistical measures to be used in the examination of the theoretical cognitive and neurological models of ASC and SEEs.

Consciousness studies involve the idea that our minds are a collection of neural networks that function as information processing systems working together to keep us alive, interact with our environment, and think about our interactions with that environment. Just as the physical universe is viewed at varying degrees along a spectrum, so too can our examination of consciousness occur, from the transmission of a single nerve impulse to the overall electric activity across the scalp. So it comes to pass that an issue arises when deciding what level of analysis to use in an attempt to properly define consciousness.

Many researchers and theorists talk about finding the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) bypassing the idea that neural correlates will be found regardless if consciousness is or is not physical (Molyneux, 2010). Researchers examining the NCC need to separate the various associated neurological and cognitive states apart to determine which ones are the essential mechanisms for consciousness to emerge from. Unfortunately, this leads to a catch-22 of disrupting the very features that are used to detect consciousness (Molyneux, 2010). ASC provide a good example of this problem.

ASC studies often have to redefine their terms in order to quantify their data. Since ASC is a subjective experience there have been many detailed accounts of the perceptual and culturally biased reports within the literature (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999; Dobkin de Rios, 1984; Móró, 2010; Schier, 2009). Introspection of ASC has also been held to have methodological objections within the cognitive sciences, but outside of the biological disciplines of psychology introspection has been shown to provide statistical data with experimental validity (Mathison & Tosey, 2009; Moore & Malinowski, 2010; Pekala et al., 1991).

By incorporating introspection into the models of the phenomenological experience of consciousness, we can now start to recognize that we cannot simply go about changing the methodologies, because such changes result in changes in the phenomena being studied. Schier (2009) explains that this 'measurement problem' leads us back again to the problem of finding the NCC and that regardless of the source type for data collection, once the variables and baselines are properly in place for the phenomena of ASC and SEEs they can be compared for analysis (Móró, 2010). The following proposal of utilizing REST within cognitive research may not solve any of the hard problems of consciousness but instead can allow for a reexamination of the functional neural correlates of the cognitive mechanisms involved in ASC and SEEs models.

Does it really need to be reexamined? Well of course it does. A clear example of this can be seen in the widely used definitions stating what ASC exactly are (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999; Dobkin de Rios, 1984; Dobkin de Rios & Munkur, 1977; Meyer & Quenzer, 2005; Móró, 2010; Randolph-Seng, 2009; Schmid et., 2010; Winkelman, 1991). I feel that Móró's (2010) working definition collects together the most important features through the use of self-mapping procedure which concludes; "A hallucinatory altered state of consciousness is a transiently stable mode of operation of supervenient levels in the mind-brain complex, where objectively detectable characteristic changes in the internal information processing mechanisms of neurocognitive subsystems may be subjectively experienced as changes in phenomenal content and overall psychological functioning, as compared with prior and posterior baseline states of the individual."

Due to a wide range of ASC techniques, such diversity can be studied using the aforementioned definition and incorporate comparative analysis of different ASC induction agents and psychobiological procedures upon the neurocognitive subsystems of interest. Winkleman (1991:17) compiled a comprehensive techniques list that includes: hallucinogens, opiates, and other drugs; extensive running or other motor behavior; hunger, thirst, and sleep loss; auditory stimulation and other forms of intense sensory stimulation such as physical torture or temperature extremes; sensory deprivation, sleep states and meditation; and a variety of psychophysiological imbalances or sensitivities resulting from hereditarily transmitted nervous system liabilities, epileptic-like states resulting from injury, disease, or other trauma to the central nervous system like extreme temperatures, or other sensitive conditions of the temporal lobe and the associated structures of the parasympathetic system. These techniques share in common the implication that ASC affect the workings of the content processing mechanisms of our minds go through a temporary instability and destabilization process during the induction of an ASC (Móró, 2010). Following this, all alteration processes are defined as states only once they have ended. It is the stabilization of the neurocognitive systems that is most often collected as the NCC. Even the field of anesthesiology refers to the emergence from anesthesia as a "cognitive rebinding" (Lee et al., 2009).

Alterations of ASC have been a feature of ritualistic shamanism for generations, and over these generations the induction techniques have found that during transitions between one state to another, a sort of inertia can occur. This inertia overlaps the past mental states with the current one and even the future mental states reverberate back depending on the induction method used. Through training, individuals create automatic physical, cognitive, and behavioral reflexes, reactions, and associations in order to gain mastery over their internal mental states during ASCs and SEEs and return to their present perspective (Hayden, 2003; Winkelman, 1991; Krippner 1991).

Neurologically this has been shown that during hallucinogen induced ASCs there is an increase of coherence in metacognitive processes and the modified oscillatory rate improves the connection of thoughts and feelings primarily to a greater degree of balance and integration of the left and right hemispheres leading to insight and a trance-like or possessive state (Winkleman, 1991). Winkleman (1991) here brings up an example of how the search for the NCC can be aided by ASC research when the proper statistical notions are used.

The ability of ASC to provoke transpersonal experience has been well documented (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999; Dobkin de Rios, 1984; Hayden, 2003; James, 1982; Meyer & Quenzer, 2005; Moore & Malinowski, 2010; Móró, 2010; Randolph-Seng, 2009; Rock et al., 2008; Winkelman, 1991). It is these transpersonal experiences that are the foundation for an individual to develop both cognitively and emotionally from the personal transitions experienced during SEEs, which Hayden (2003:63) defines as: sacred ecstatic states seem to be particularly strong experiences that can occur when a person enters into an altered state of consciousness with cultural values that predispose the person toward sacred ecstatic experiences, when individuals are motivated to have such experiences and have made appropriate ritual, mental, and physical preparations for them.

The ritual and cultural preparations of SEEs have a systematic correspondence with the phenomenal experiences during contemporary pharmacologically induced ASCs research (Móró, 2010; Suefeld & Bow, 1999). Pharmacological induction techniques work in action with the manipulation of ASC by utilizing the concepts of set and setting. Set involves the individual characteristics and expectations while setting contributes through the physical and social context of the practice (Winkleman, 1991; Dobkin de Rios, 1984; Móró, 2010). Research into set and setting has often involved converging evidence from biochemical, eletrophysiological, and behavioral studies that psychedelic and pharmacological substances, the indoleamines and the phenethylamines, enhance the role of set and setting upon phenomenal experience and sensory information.

The neurocognitive effects that are elicited during ASC techniques are: a replacement of an externally orientated perspective of sympathetic dominance of cognitive processes and desynchronized activity of the frontal cortex; cessation of external behavior and focus on internally generated perspectives during high doses or severe conditions; increased tendency toward exploratory behavior and arousal response reconditioning; destabilization of habitual experiences and a reduction in egocentric fixation; dealing with a variety of stress related perspectives such as fears, phobias, and stress and tension management; as well as personal integration, self-control and a range of physical changes (Winkelman, 1992).

Hood and Morris (1981) provide a clear picture of how when the research goals are stated, one should strive to produce the set conditions to maximize the elicitation of the desired phenomena. They achieved this through the application of REST in their examination of intrinsic/extrinsic reports of religious imagery (Hood and Morris, 1981). There are two methods of REST, chamber REST and floatation REST. The procedure of chamber REST involves that a subject lies down in a bed for about 24 hours in a dark, sound-reduced room. Instructions are given to reduce movements but no physical restraints are used. The normal biological amenities are provided (food, water and toilets) within the room and an intercom is used so that subjects can talk to the research assistants at anytime. Across studies fewer than 10% of subjects leave the chamber prematurely (Suefeld & Bow, 1999).

The second method used in REST is tank flotation. Floatation REST involves a quiet room that holds an insulated tank (of varying sizes) that contains 20-30 cm of a medium that is a skin-temperature solution (35.5 Celsius) of water and Epsom salts. This mediums density has a specific gravity of 1.15 relative to distilled water that allows for no effort to be made to float and major effort needed to attempt to turn over, because of these features subjects can relax with no concern for their safety. Similar to chamber REST, an intercom is present and communication with a research assistant is available. Tank floatation has an experimental cost benefit in that sessions on average only last 45-60 minutes compared to chamber REST sessions lasting up to 24 hours (Suefeld et al., 1983).

The psychological effects of REST on consciousness have been documented to reduce the rigidity of behavioral and cognitive patterns with evidence from measures of reactions to counter attitudinal information, attitudinal self-consistency, and problem solving (Pei-cheng & Ying, 2004; Schulz & Kaspar, 1994; Suefeld & Bow, 1999; Suefeld et al. 1983). Improvements of memory also have been seen in ECT patients who have demonstrated lowered rates of subjective memory loss (Suefeld & Bow, 1999). As well as, reduction of distracters, elimination of behavioral trigger cues, and disruption habit patterns through the removal of external demands.

REST has also been examined a fear- and arousal-reducing procedure, similar to pharmacological studies. Barabasz (via Suefeld & Borrie, 1999) showed by using four aircraft pilots using REST therapy had reduced anxiety and improved flying performance. Also, seen in a case study by Walker, Freeman and Christensen (via Suefeld & Borrie, 1999) where a patient with debilitating OCD went through multiple sessions of floatation REST while audio recordings of his own obsessive thoughts were played. The lack of his ability to act on these recorded thoughts as a result of his deeply relaxed state reduced the negative OCD symptoms. Accumulation and habituation though, do not occur with weekly floatation REST sessions, for at least 6 months according to another study reviewed by Suefeld & Bow (1999).

Suefeld & Bow (1999) also examined about 20 REST-related smoking interventions and found that when REST was used alongside other treatments it allowed a patient's post-treatment gains to be enhanced over the long-term with lower relapse rates. These findings have subsequently been applied to alcoholics and heavy drug abusers because these therapeutic situations work on the information content processing mechanisms and the subjective experience of set and setting in order to have a measureable impact upon the physical and mental functioning of patients (Móró 2010, Schmid et al. 2010; Zeidan et al., 2010). Such positive mood enhancements as these that occur are one of the main reasons that recreational REST experiences are becoming more commonly available in spas, resorts, and as stand-alone businesses. This is because they provide a drug-free and safe environment and setting for people to personally experience an ASC outside their daily life.

It is these features of REST that I have proposed should be incorporated into the examination of the theoretical cognitive and neurological models of ASC and SEEs. One model that has briefly been examined using REST is that of implicit and explicit learning models of procedural memory (Norlander et al., 1999). The researchers applied REST to inspect how REST can be applied to reinforce the primary process orientation to enhance the quality of coaching and training methods that occur in individualized sports, such as competitive archery (Norlander et al., 1999).

Another level of analysis that calls for further investigation is the noteworthy neural-level ASC model based on the cortico-striato-thalamocortical (CSTC) loop hypothesis, which explains hallucinogen-induced consciousness alterations by disinhibitory mechanisms in serotonergic pathways between different brain areas (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999; Móró, 2010; Winkelman, 1991). The CSTC neural model is supported by an association with the phenomenal experience during pharmacologically induced ASCs and their common site of action as partial agonists at 5-HT2A and other 5-HT2 receptors in the central nervous system (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999). The noradrenergic locus coeruleus and the cerebral cortex have been shown as examples of the regions where hallucinogens have prominent effects through their actions upon 5-HT2A receptors. (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999; Móró, 2010).

The Locus Coeruleus projections have been proposed to be one possible mechanism involved in the experience that indole hallucinogens induce and that can be experienced both during Near-Death-Experiences (NDEs), Lucid dreaming, and sensory deprivation. Amphetamine releases NE from the Locus Coeruleus (LC) axon endings by displacing it from storage vesicles (Meyer & Quenzer, 2005). Electrical stimulation of the LC elicits strong startle responses and hyper-responsiveness to the environment (like an amphetamine effect) invoking the “fight-or-flight" response.

The limbic system is the main neural structure that is our decider of what is real and what is important, and when it is under high activity our experiences appear to become “hyper-real”. Another factor being that the limbic mechanisms also plays a role in the information coming out of our memory (Meyer & Quenzer, 2005). So when ‘hyper-real space and sensations’ are being attended to the ASC, the raw material from our memories is not inhibited as strongly and fuses together with the physical senses and produces a hallucinatory experience.

The neural control of sleep and dreaming involves a subtle balance among: serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, adenosine, and histamine in a widely distributed system throughout the brain. Interactions between the serotonergic and adrenergic systems in the brain are important in controlling the switch from Non-REM to REM sleep and generally regulates that dream-like mental contents remain out of waking consciousness. The effects of all kinds of psychedelic substances may be to de-repress this system (Aghajanian & Marek, 1999). 5-HT2A receptors seem to be responsible for the bulk of the hallucinogenic effects and are due to changes in activity in; the locus coeruleus, glutamatergic neurons in the cortex, especially those that connect with the thalamus limbic system activation. Such experience have been documented to occur during extended REST sessions and I propose that it can be made use as another drug-free route in further examining the role of the limbic system in ASC (Fine & Turner, 1982; Flynn, 1962; Forgays & Forgays, 1992; Hoods & Morris, 1981).

The reasons for this discussion on hallucinogens and their mechanisms is that these systems may be what Suefeld & Bow’s (1999) work on REST and sensory deprivation were getting at with the idea that while the body is deprived of sensory experiences there becomes an increased sensitivity to any information that is available, both externally and internally, and that the mechanisms involved in producing the psychological effects seen in the use of REST can be hypothesized to be similar to the mechanisms used in sleep, ASC, and SEEs. Using Móró’s (2010) definition of ASC and incorporating it with the introspective measurements mentioned earlier, REST can be focused experimentally on correlating the subjective and phenomenal experience of an ASC with the psychophysiological and neurocognitive data.

On a final note in relation to cognitive science and REST, it has been found that the presence of or absence of light during REST does not interfere with the overall experience and psychological effects of the REST environment (Turner et al., 1989). These findings hold the implication that it is also possible to provide a novel method of experiment duplication within the disciplines of visual perception, memory consolidation, attention systems, and information processing. The capacity to replicate such experiments using a digital/touch screens within the REST environments creates an opportunity to contribute extensive data and further analysis of the established theories of cognitive psychology.

Works Cited:

Aghajanian, G.K., and Marek, G.J. (1999) Serotonin and hallucinogens. Neuropsychopharmacology 21(25): 16S-23S.

David, B. (1993).“A brief overview of research regarding the effectiveness of restricted environmental stimulation therapy as a complementary treatment for a range of behaviorial disorders.” Neurobehvarioral Health Services 1: 13.

Dobkin de Rios, M. (1984) Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural Perspectives.

University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Dobkin de Rios, M. & Munkur, B. (1977) On the Serpent Cult and Psychoactive Plants. Current Anthropology 18(3): 556-558.

Fine, T. H., & Turner Jr., J. W. (1982) The effect of brief restricted environmental stimulation therapy in the treatment of essential hypertension. Behavior Research and Therapy, 20(6): 553-559.

Turner Jr., J. W., Fine, T., Ewy, G., Sershon, P., & Freundlich, T. (1989) The Presence or Absence of Light During Flotation Restricted Environmental Stimulation: Effects on Plasma Cortisol, Blood Pressure, and Mood. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 14(4): 291-300.

Flynn, W. R., (1962) Visual hallucinations in sensory deprivation. Psychiatric Quarterly, 1962.

Forgays, D. G., & Forgays, D. K. (1992) Creativity enhancement through floatation isolations. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 12: 329-335.

Hayden, B. (2003) A Prehistory of Religion: Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints. Smithsonion Books, Washington.

Hood Jr., R. W. &Morris, R. J. (1981) Sensory Isolation and the Differential Elicitation of Religious Imagery in Intrinsic and Extrinxic Persons. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 20(3): 261-273.

James, W. (1982) The Varieties of Religious Experience. Viking Penguin Inc, London.

Krippner, S. (1991) Research Strategies in the Study of Shamanism and Anomalous Experience. The Anthropology of Consciousness 2(1-2): 13-19.

Lee, U., Mashour, G. A., Kim, S., Noh, G., & Choi, B. (2009) Propofol induction reduces the capacity for neural information integration: Implications for the mechanism of consciousness and general anesthesia. Consciousness and Cognition, 18: 56-64.

Lenggenhager, B., Mouthon, M., & Blanke, O. (2009) Spatial aspects of bodily self-consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 18: 110-117.

Mathison J. and Tosey P. (2009) ‘Exploring moments of knowing; neuro-linguistic programming and enquiry into inner landscapes’. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17(9–10).

Meyer, J. S., & Quenzer, M. F. (2005) Psychopharmacology: Drugs, The Brain, and Behavior. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Molyneux, B. (2010) Why the Neural Correlates of Consciousness Cannot be Found. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17(9–10): 168–88.

Moore, Adam, and Malinowski, Peter. (2009). Meditation, mindfulness and cognitive flexibility. Consciousness and Cognition, 18: 176-186.

Móró, L. (2010) Hallucinatory altered states of consciousness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9: 241-252.

Norlander, T., Bergman, H., & Archer, T. (1999) Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of floatation REST. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 11(2): 194-209.

Pei-cheng, H., & Ying, S. (2004) Effects of floatation therapy on relaxation and mental state. Chinese Medical Journal, 117(10): 1579-1581.

Pekala, R. J., Steinberg, J., & Kumar, V. K. (1986) Measurement of phenomenological experience: phenomenology of consciousness inventory. Perceptual and Motor Skills 63(2): 983-989.

Randolph-Seng, B. (2009). Opening the Doors of Perception: Priming Altered States of Consciousness Outside of Conscious Awareness. Archive for the Psychology of Religion 31: 237-260.

Rock, A. J., Wilson, J. M., Johnston, L. J., & Levesque, J. V. (2008) Ego Boundaries, Shamanic-Like Techniques, and Subjective Experience: An Experimental Study. Anthropology of Consciousness 19(1): 60-83.

Schier, E. (2009) Identifying phenomenal consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 18: 216-222.

Schmid, J. T., Jungaberle, H., & Verres, R. (2010) Subjective Theories about (Self-) Treatment with Ayahuasca. Anthropology of Consiousness 21(2): 188-204.

Schultes, R. E., & Hoffman, A. (1979) The Plants of the Gods. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Schulz & Kaspar, (1994) Neuroendocrine and psychological effects of restricted environmental stimulation technique in a floatation tank. Biological Psychology, 37: 161-175.

Suedfeld, P. (1999) “Health and therapeutic applications of chamber and flotation restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST)”. The International Journal of the Addictions 14: 861-888.

Suedfeld, P, & Bow, R. A. (1999) Health and therapeutic applications of chamber and flotation restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST). Psychology & Health 14(3): 545-566.

Suefeld, P., Ballard, E. J., & Murphy, M. (1983) Water immersion and floatation: from stress experiment to stress treatment. Journal of Environmental Psychology 3: 147-155.

Suefeld, P., Metcalfe, J., & Black, S. (1987) Enhancement of scientific creativity by flotation REST (Restricted environmental stimulation technique. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 7: 219-231.

Winkelman, M. (1991) Therapeutic Effects of Hallucinogens. The Anthropology of Consciousness 2(3-4): 15-19.

Zeidan, F., Johnson, S. K., Diamond, B. J., David, Z., & Goolkasian, P. (2010) Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training. Consciousness and Cognition, 19: 597–605.

Farm Trooper Quoteage

2010-12-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

How I Met Your Mother's Presentation of Sexuality.

2010-12-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) is a TV sitcom that shall be analyzed in this paper on its depiction of sexuality. It is a show about people being in love, and how those people treat each other. It was developed with the DVD experience in mind so that the viewers could watch the progression of close relationships between the characters and the sexual landscape in which they maneuver. The main characters are Lilly Aldrin, Marshall Eriksen, Ted Mosby, Barney Stinson, and Robin Scherbatsky and adhere to the variety of personality types seen typically within sitcoms. Lilly and Marshall are a couple trying to keep young love alive. Ted is a single man looking for his true love. Robin is a strong independent woman who has a soft side. Barney is a hard drinking, womanizing, and chauvinist male. During the course of the characters development across the seasons, it is the variety of human sexuality stereotypes and situations that are vastly used as the shows comedic material, from the “Olive Theory” to the “First 8.3 seconds”.

The aim of this paper is to inspect how the themes of sexuality are presented in the show as well as to discuss how knowledge and claims about sex should be derived from empirical sources and not from personal experiences and folk-psychological non-scientific sources. The following themes shall be examined: recall techniques, premature ejaculation, facework and sexual communication, components of jealousy, and a detailed look at current conceptualization of sexual identity through the character Barney Stinson.

The concept of recall techniques was examined by Brown & Sinclair (1999) in order to study how participants recalled their sexual partners. It was found that there were three different methods used in how people remember their past partners (Brown & Sinclair, 1999); enumeration, where a list is made on the spot of each person considered a sexual partner; tally, where a list is kept recorded in a diary or book; rough approximation, where guessing is involved. All three methods are used within the context of the HIMYM, and are especially pronounced in the episode “Right Place Right Time” where Barney uses his detailed dossier in order to keep track of reaching his goal of sleeping with 200 women.

The theme of premature ejaculation is presented throughout HIMYM in a negative light. Premature ejaculation occurs when with minimal sexual simulation before, on, or shortly after penetration and before the person wishes it and occurs in 28.5% of men (Hill, 2007). A case example of the negative depictions is clearly seen in the episode “Where Were We?” Throughout the episode there are comedic situations that occur where a man and women are in physical contact with each other while the man is having a separate conversation and ends up receiving negative news and responds by saying “oh oh,” This was immediately followed by the female either making a concerned and worried look of disappointment, or saying “Already?” This implication involves the idea and negative perception that premature ejaculation is a problem and frowned upon by women.

Research of sexual communication within a close relationship has mainly dealt with what is being communicated. The concepts of interest, desire (initiation), consent, likes and dislikes during sexual communication all share a subtext of the psychological model of facework (Cupach & Metts, 2003; Cupuch & Spitzber, 1994). Facework involves the idea that people aim to save face, the social impression of themselves on others, in order achieve a balance of positive face, the desire for validation and respect for and from their partner, and negative face, the desire to be free from constraint and imposition upon autonomy and personal differences (Cupach & Metts, 2003; Cupuch & Spitzber, 1994). In HIMYM sexual communication is widely presented in many forms and exemplified by the “Olive Theory” discussion in the pilot episode of series. The “Olive Theory” is based on Marshal and Lilly’s relationship. He hates them and she loves them, in a way it is a perfect balance. Near the end of the episode Barney points out to Marshall that the “Olive Theory” is false because he has witnessed Marshall eating olives while Lilly was not present. Marshall explains how on their first date at a Greek restaurant Lilly asked for his olives and he lied about he hated them because “I had been waiting 18 years for some pretty girl to like my olives.” Lilly overhears this and grabs onto Marshall, who has a look of fear on his face as he admits, “Lilly, I like olives.” Her response clearly shows a subtext of positive face when she replies, “We’ll make it work.”

Harris’ (2003) article proposed that the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of jealousy should be modeled on the attachment/pair bonding and social-cognitive perspectives. The attachment perspective normative form of attachment anxiety predicts that individuals with low self-esteem, neuroticism, dependency problems, distrust of partner, and feeling of inadequacy about a relationship will display jealous behavior (Harris, 2003; Hill, 2007). The social-cognitive perspective holds that the role of culture influences jealousy, and that with cognitive changes over time, an individual’s jealous thoughts and behaviors decrease.

In beginning of season three of HIMYM Robin and Ted have broken off their relationship with each other. She travels to Argentina for a vacation in order to recuperate, she returns with an Argentinean lover. Ted instantly shaves off his breakup beard and joins Barney in a search for a new girl. The jealousy between the two becomes apparent when Robin and her lover discuss sex in front of Ted and the group. The conversation that ensues shows how the concepts of preventive, corrective, and aggressive facework within social sexual conversations become increasingly more influential (Cupach & Metts, 2003; Cupuch & Spitzber, 1994). Also the gender differences in jealousy due to differences in cognitive appraisal (Harris, 2003), are present in the end of the episode when Robin hampers Ted’s feelings of rejection and jealousy by telling him “You’re bigger.” This reference to the size of his genitalia eased his focus on sexual competition through his macho male ideals.

The current conceptualization of sexual identity involves the components of sexual and romantic arousal and attraction, behavior, and the self understanding of identity (Hill, 2007). The process identity development is integrated with the behaviors of arousal and attraction and as Eagly and Wood (1999) have shown sex-typical male roles are associated with power and status by engaging in dominant behavior (e.g., controlling and assertive acts), while women participate in more subordinate behavior. Barney fulfills this sex-typical role quite well. He constantly references women as objects of desire and manipulation in order for him to achieve his own ends. He uses a rating system for female attractiveness. “"Okay, Robin's a 10. Fine, we'll get you a 12. Or, you know, two sixes. Failing that, four threes. And, break glass in case of emergency, we'll go to Staten Island, we'll get you 12 ones." He also approaches picking up women as a science of sexual coercion and compliance.

Barney’s playbook of coercive techniques seem to reflect the findings of Shotland and Goodstein (1992) which provides support for the concept of an implicit social contract during sexual encounters. Incorporated into his playbook is the concept of sexual compliance, which is a common behavior among young people and involves the willingness to engage in sexual activity that one does not necessarily desire (Vannier & O’Sullivan, 2010). This is presented in the show by statements that involve ‘plays’ of Barney’s that take into account the location and the essential 8.3 seconds of first impressions, which is a fact statistic used by Barney in order to validate his own claims. Such statements include; “Finish line of a women's 10K. Salty girls on an endorphin high who just want to lay down.”, “Female acrobats from Montreal. Super flexible. We are going to get Cirque du So-laid.”

Lastly, when Barney breaks his own “Platinum Rule” with Wendy the waitress, his assumption is that she accepts and understands his 'swinging' and 'open' lifestyle. This though is not the case and the relationship dissolves and causes strong negative associations between his self satisfaction and the quality of the relationship (Hill, 2007). His personal process of identity development is accurately portrayed when he recites, “Remember the old Barney. He was a lion, king of the jungle. Stalking whatever prey he chose. Going in for the kill. Now look at me. Declawed, neutered. What was once my jungle is now my zoo. And I am forced to mate with the same old lioness again, and again, and again, while families pay to watch.”

In conclusion, the focus of this paper was to inspect how human sexuality themes of recall techniques, premature ejaculation, facework and sexual communication, components of jealousy, and the current conceptualization of sexual identity through the character Barney Stinson sexuality were depicted throughout HIMYM. Hopefully it was shown how knowledge and claims about sex derived from empirical sources can be depicted positively and at the same time be neglected and fueled by negative stereotypes.

References:

Brown, N. R., & Sinclair, R. C. (1999). Estimating number of lifetime sexual partners: Men and women do it differently. The Journal of Sex Research, 36(3). 292-297.

Cupach, W. R., & Metts, S. (2003). Face management in interpersonal communication. In K. M. Galvin & P. J. Cooper (Eds.), Making connections: Readings in relational communication (3^rd ed.) (pp. 191-198). Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing.

Cupuch, W.R., & Spitzber, B.H. (Eds). (1994). The dark side of interpersonal communication. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social roles. American Psychologist, 54, 408–423.

Harris, C. R. (2003). A review of sex differences in sexual jealousy, including self-report data, psychophyisiological responses, interpersonal violence, and morbid jealousy. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7(2), 102-128.

Hill, C. A. (2007). Human sexuality: A personality and social psychological perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Shotland, R. L., & Goodstein, L. (1992). Sexual precedence reduces the perceived legitimacy of sexual refusal: An examination of attributions concerning date rape and consensual sex. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 756–764.

Vannier, S. A., & O’Sullivan, L. F. (2010). Sex without desire: Characteristics of occasions of sexual compliance in young adults’ committed relationships. Journal of Sex Research, 47(5), 429-439.

GameCrush!

2010-12-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

I've recently been neglecting this site due to an abundance of workload pressures. Now that christmas is approaching and spare time may become slight more available. I rally for people to check it out and give it a try. The girls online to game with are amazing and worth every penny for their wonderful time and personality.

So sign up now and give it a go. What can you lose really? maybe a few dollars but hey you'd spend that at the bar, Tim Hortons, or the bus most likely anyways.

GameCrush.com

Arch 226: Shamanic elements in Western culture and why they persist.

2010-11-27T05:02:00.000-08:00

1. Purpose.

The aim of this paper is to inspect the persistence of shamanic elements and their techniques within Western culture through the use of psychopharmacological substances, ritualistic practices, and cognitive training, which are commonly used to induce an Altered State of Consciousness (ASC) in coaction towards attaining a Sacred Ecstatic Experience (SEE) in contemporary society. That they have remained within contemporary society is adherent to their importance within the development of individual and social life. Shamanic elements of healing and their therapeutic applications will be examined in regards to how their traditional uses have been maintained, developed, and incorporated into new aspects of medical and therapeutic culture. This maintained and modified nature of shamanic elements will also be discussed on the topic of magic and intellectual property rights.

2. Importance.

Shamanism is often examined using cultural ecological terms when trying to define its presence as a religious technique within past and present cultures. A problem with this is that there have been few comprehensive assessments of the subjective effects of shamanic-like journeying techniques on non-shamans, regardless of the deviations that occur from the traditional forms to modified (self-)Treatments (Rock et al. 2008). Hayden (2003) is one of the few texts providing a comprehensive assessment of shamanic-like elements and techniques, which is termed by Hayden (2003:63) as Sacred Ecstatic Experiences (SEEs): sacred ecstatic states seem to be particularly strong experiences that can occur when a person enters into an altered state of consciousness with cultural values that predispose the person toward sacred ecstatic experiences, when individuals are motivated to have such experiences and have made appropriate ritual, mental, and physical preparations for them. The SEE is the foundation for the continuation of shamanic elements and their techniques today.

It is difficult to construct exactly all the proper terminology and criteria which must be used when building an operationally defined list of all the elements of shamans and their techniques to discuss here. This topic of operational definitions of SEE has been tackled in such a multidisciplinary way that the terminology appears diluted and confused to me (Rock et al. 2008, Dobkin de Rios 1977, Hayden 2003, Móró 2010, Suchman 1989). An objective of this paper is to briefly examine only those elements and techniques that are supported with the physical and measureable properties above the debate over the validity of subjective experience within scientific models and theories. For several decades this has been dealt within psychological research development of ASC studies and the noteworthy measure Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI; Pekala et al. 1991).

The future also holds promise for SEEs to be researched across disciplines using a wide range of scientific approaches. As with all things in life, a hierarchy of categorization occurs. Shamanic elements and their techniques are influencing research into the neurological basis and cognitive implications of ASC upon our health, life, and the role of set and setting within therapeutic models of clinical care. Even complex legal realms of litigation of copyright laws and intellectual property rights can utilize the sacred knowledge that shamans have been using since the prehistory of religion. Absorbing for generations and apply it towards increasing and enhancing their own current perspectives.

Perspectives are what make reality. We all have our own one. Every individual has a personal sense of reality and has such themes have been perplexing philosophers for millennia and been argued on paper since the inception of academic institutions. Shamanic elements are rooted in the ability of controlling perspective, perception, sacred forces, the Force, nature, God, karma, and spirits. All of these terms exist interconnected and separated by our reality tunnels. But for the purpose of this discourse I shall use many of the above to be the same abstract concept of what it is that shamans interact with spiritually and physically.

The shaman's voluntary ability to overcome, control, and regulate the severe conditions through the invocation of SEEs places him or her in a special position when used to enhance appropriate behaviors and ameliorate stress and illness within a community (Hayden 2003:49 Krippner 1991). This is because the shaman has tapped into certain abilities to communicate with the sacred forces and reach into others reality tunnels and break free their physical illusionary shells to expose what the individual’s sacred realities could be. This is achieved through many shamanic elements and techniques; a more visible one being costumes. Costumes worn during shamanic rituals have been ethnographically shown to assist, protect and help control the connection between the shaman and the sacred forces that they invoke, also by utilizing archetypal symbolic items, enhancement of the mental states, self-confidence, and energy levels within the shaman balance of control (Hayden 2003).

To properly use a costume one needs to know how to acquire it, put it on, and invoke the associated symbolic content behind it. All of this knowledge is part of the training of the shaman and is a very crucial stage of shamanic practices. No person instantly gains insight into their own and other’s perspectives. With dedication of the individual and the help from elders, texts, experience, and practice the shaman can prepare themselves ritually and mentally for the shamanic practice ahead. Through training, individuals create automatic physical, cognitive, and behavioral reflexes, reactions, and associations in order to gain mastery over their internal mental states during ASCs and SEEs and return to their present perspective (Hayden 2003, Winkelman 1991, Krippner 1991). Neurologically this has been shown that during hallucinogen induced ASCs there is an increase of coherence in metacognitive processes and the modified oscillatory rate improves the connection of thoughts and feelings primarily to a greater degree of balance and integration of the left and right hemispheres leading to insight and a trance-like or possessive state (Winkleman 1991).

Trance and possession states though are only two type of ASC. Shamanic techniques of inducing an ASC are as varied as their symbolical worldviews and beliefs. Formal techniques that are associated with shamanism are sensory deprivation and overstimulation, pain through tattoos, initiation rites, body modification, psychoactive plants, psychopharmacological substances, and cognitive training (Hayden 2003, Winkelman 1991, Schmid et al. 2010, Rock et al. 2008). These techniques and ASC will be revisited in more detail soon.

Training teaches the shaman how those insights can be used personally and for the community. This social application of knowledge is another important element of shamanism. Not facing certain challenges alone is part of the shamanic character and practices and has been ethnographically shown (Hayden 2003). No one is alone in this world, for we have developed as a social community of organisms, and the thing that social organisms are specialized at is working together. An assistant and others can be enlisted by the shaman to maneuver the dangerous possession state situations that SEEs can hold (Hayden 2003:60). Often the shaman strives to be a healer and protector within his or her community. This is why shamans are known to practice both healing and destructive perspectives.

During healing sessions involving shamans, the use of induced ASC can range from scenarios where the shaman is alone or involve the whole group present and the universal presence of SEEs during shamanistic healing ceremonies reflects that there is a biological and cognitive basis (Winkleman 1991, Dobkin de Rios 1983, Móró 2010). The similarity that shamanistic techniques have with therapeutic situations is that the workings of information content processing mechanisms and the subjective experience of set and setting have a measureable impact upon the physical and mental functioning of patients (Móró 2010, Schmid et al. 2010). The therapeutic commonalties between traditional SEE healing ceremonies and evidence for the therapeutic effectiveness of hallucinogens provide support for this. Winkleman (1991:15-19) and Schmid et al. (2010) clearly demonstrates this through: the findings from clinical medicine on effects of LSD; a general model of ASC, their physiological characteristics, and therapeutic effects; and laboratory studies of physiological, sensory, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive effects of hallucinogens; and the categorization of the differences in types of psychedelic users.

3. Arguments For.

The use of psychopharmacological substances, ritualistic practices, and cognitive training teaches the shaman the ability to voluntary overcome, control, and regulate SEEs. A wide range of techniques are described in traditional shamans’ repertoire and incorporate different ASC induction agents and psychobiological procedures. Winkleman (1991:17) compiled a comprehensive techniques list that includes: hallucinogens, opiates, and other drugs; extensive running or other motor behavior; hunger, thirst, and sleep loss; auditory stimulation and other forms of intense sensory stimulation such as physical torture or temperature extremes; sensory deprivation, sleep states and meditation; and a variety of psychophysiological imbalances or sensitivities resulting from hereditarily transmitted nervous system liabilities, epileptic-like states resulting from injury, disease, or other trauma to the central nervous system like extreme temperatures, or other sensitive conditions of the temporal lobe and the associated structures of the parasympathetic system. All of these techniques appear not only in the clinical literature, but also in our everyday life. It is hard not to read a story, watch a film or TV series without seeing one or another of these techniques being experience by a character and have a deep impact upon their consciousness. To me this is clearly showing how SEE occur throughout everyone’s life. Therefore it is because of this that these techniques support how SEEs have a systematic correspondence with the phenomenal experiences during contemporary pharmacologically induced ASCs practices (Móró 2010, Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). SEE induction techniques work in coaction with the manipulation of ASC by utilizing the concepts of set and setting. Set involves the individual characteristics and expectations while setting contributes through the physical and social context of the practice (Winkleman 1991, Dobkin de Rios 1984, Móró 2010).

SEEs traditionally have utilized techniques that focus on the psychobiological and emotional aspects of ASC that involve transcendence, mystical, spiritual, and transpersonal experiences and are reflected in the extensive role of the shamanistic healer in manipulating the individual’s tribal cosmology during treatment (Winkleman 1991). This was built upon techniques and elements learned during a shaman’s training and their initiations on the proper use of costumes, archetypal props, well-practiced chants, song and dance, small social nuances, and the preparation of psychoactive plants commonly seen in shamanic practice (Hayden 2003. Schmid et al. 2010).

Ethnographically, these techniques have been demonstrated in shamanic recruitment rituals as they allowed the shamanic societies of prehistoric cultures, and the priesthoods of early religion, to identify individuals who would perform well under ASC develop the ability to properly control a balance between the sacred forces (Suchman 1989, Hayden 2003). Elements of recruitment rituals and control over ASC persist today in certain subcultures that demonstrate a common positive view towards successful individuals with the SEE characteristics of ineffability, enlightenment, fleeting duration of harsh experiences, passivity of egocentric guidance, and transcendence with higher forces (Hayden 2003, Suchman 1989). Such subcultures are the fashion world, standup comedy, off-the-grid and gang communities, creative and artistic publication of alternative media, and the tattoo and body modification industries.

In all of these subcultures, sans the tattoo and body modification industry, there is an underlying concept that to be successful one must put in their time and work through a long and arduous apprenticeship that involves; the severe poverty-like living conditions, a constant state of disapproval and rejection, adopting an ideology such as “only the tough, smart, and odd survive”, and the wide use of pharmacological substances within each culture. Without having these recruitment rituals, the individual would lack the knowledge and skills to exert mental and physical control over the main cognitive and emotional factors involved in such social and businesses landscapes; repeated rejection, drastically harsh styles of criticism, extremely fast and constantly reactive lifestyles, egocentric personalities but with an ability to shift to other perspectives freely in order to gain knowledge and advantages over others situations. Recruitment rituals that involve life experience appear then too be used traditionally and contemporarily for the behavioral effects that are gained during training in ASC induction practices and manipulation.

Initiation and recruitment rituals can also be induced using the more structured and dogmatic techniques similar to those used today by worldwide military personal training by the application of hazing ceremonies towards new recruits. The modern day military industrial complex has bureaucratized and created tightly controlled evaluation criteria for every occupational position in their social organizational structure. This is achieved through any and all available methods of measurement and categorization of an individual and the application of that individual’s assessment models to find the most profitable and achievable mode of training. A detailed comparison is beyond the scope of this paper but supports the claim that many organizations and groups incorporate the SEEs in a variety of forms towards eliciting their desired behavioral effects.

The resulting behavioral effects that are elicited during such aforementioned SEE techniques are: a replacement of an externally orientated perspective of sympathetic dominance of cognitive processes and desynchronized activity of the frontal cortex; cessation of external behavior and focus on internally generated perspectives during high does or severe conditions; increased tendency toward exploratory behavior and arousal response reconditioning; depatterning influence on habitual experiences and a reduction in egocentric fixation; dealing with a variety of stress related perspectives such as fears, phobias, and stress and tension management; as well as personal integration, self-control and a range of physical changes. All of these behavioral changes have been clinically shown to have significant therapeutic effects when targeted at various structures of the body, brain, or mind, such as sensory modalities, movements and postures, breathing, brain metabolism, neurotransmitter levels, linguistic, cognitive, and emotional processing (Winkleman 1991, Móró 2010, Schmid et al. 2010, Hayden 2003, Suefeld & Borrie, 1999).

It is these therapeutic effects that shall now be examined in detail on the array of commonalities that current clinical and (self-) treatments share with traditional healing ceremonies shown ethnographically to be used by shamans’ (Hayden 2003, Winkleman 1991, Krippner 1991, Dokin de Rios 1977, Schmid et al. 2010, Rock et al. 2008). Móró (2010) shows us that ASC induction methods can result in an obvious causal resulting state, however this perspective has been modified and personalized in every realm that shamanic elements are present and can be separated into five categories: spontaneously occurring, physically and physiologically induced, psychologically induced, disease induced, and pharmacologically induced phenomena (Móró 2010). Due to cultural transmission different induction techniques have been combined across large timelines and social arenas. During traditional healing ceremonies and contemporary clinical research the SEE is put through a constant barrage and experimentation which has resulted in manipulating ASC for the neurological, cognitive, emotional, psychophysical, and behavioral effects that can serve as a therapeutic tool.

One case example is an analysis of Ayahuasca as a method of (Self-) Treatment by Schmid et al. (2010:188-204). Ayahuasca, botanically and pharmacologically; is made of a vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), a MAO (monoamino-oxidase) inhibitor, and usually a DMT (Dimethyltryptamine)-containing plant (Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys caberena), it’s active ingredients are the reversible MAO-inhibitor harmine and the serotonin-reuptake inhibitor tetrahydroharmine, which together make the serotonin-receptor (5-HT2) agonist component N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) bioavailable for oral use, and is relatively potent and long-acting when compared to the practice of inhalation of synthesized DMT (Schmid et al. 2010). The fully processed ayahuasca becomes an ingestible beverage that is used in the ritualistic setting of Santo Daime rituals, neo-shamanic rituals, and do-it-yourself (Self-) treatments which are commonly referred to as “healing ceremonies” (Schmid et al. 2010).

It was found that those patients who had sought (self-) treatment of their clinical conditions are that there search was guided by a common lack of confidence in the conventional medical regimes that are applied in hospitals and treatment centers. Instead, coupled with a perspective of rejection towards the “harm and addiction” propaganda surround psychoactive substances, the patients wanted a more “holistic” or “spiritual” therapy method (Schmid et al. 2010). These examples show how such patients display features of a SEE through the presence of cultural values that predispose the person toward sacred ecstatic experiences and when individuals are motivated to have such experiences and have made appropriate ritual, mental, and physical preparations for them (Hayden 2003, Schmid et al. 2010).

With this perspective in hand (Self-) treatment patients were open to actively learn to apply the appropriate training in order to elicit, what Winkleman (2005) has termed, “unspecific changes” within their therapeutic techniques. Schmid et al. (2010:197) have categorized these unspecific improvements to include nine categories: (1) A change in health behaviors including diet. Participants also often gave up alcohol or cigarettes, (2) Enhanced clarity, recognition, and sensibility, (3) Increased physical well-being, (4) Energy, power, and strength, (5) Better coping with problems and ‘‘daily hassles,’’ (6) Confidence and tranquility, (7) A renewed sense of happiness, love, and joy, (8) A change of life orientation sometimes including a strive for non-materialistic values, (9) Improved social competences. All of these unspecific changes are beneficial characteristics within clinical therapeutic strategies and share their origins with shamanic healing ceremonies.

Another therapeutic technique that has been examined clinically for its ASC manipulation potential and resulting unspecific improvements is Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) (Norlander et al. 1999, Suefeld & Borrie 1999). The first technique of REST is called chamber REST. The procedure follows that a subject lies down in a bed for 24 hours in a dark, sound-reduced room. Instructions are given to reduce movement but no physical restraints are used. The standard biological amenities are provided (food, water and toilets) within the room and an intercom is used so that subjects can talk to the research assistants at anytime. Across studies fewer than 10% of subjects leave the study (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999).

The second method used in REST is tank flotation. Floatation REST involves a quiet room that contains an insulated tank (of varying sizes) that contains 20-30 cm of a medium that is a skin-temperature solution (35.5 Celsius) of water and Epsom salts. This mediums density has a specific gravity of 1.15 relative to distilled water which allows for no effort to be made to float and major effort to attempt to turn over. As a result of this, a subject can relax with no concern for their safety. Similar to chamber REST, an intercom is present and communication with a research assistant is available. Tank floatation has experimental benefit that sessions on average only last 45-60 minutes compared to chamber REST sessions of 24 hours.

Chamber and Floatation REST methods are similar to the sensory overstimulation and deprivation practices used traditionally by shamans and religious practioners. This is ethnographically shown by such techniques of the St. Lawrence Island Eskimos where shamanic training involves a 5-day episode where they "go out of their minds," staying outside during snowstorms without eating or drinking, enacting death and resurrection rituals, and displaying strength so unusual that "ten men cannot hold them" (Suchman 1989). Similar psychological Effects of REST can be seen in clinical multitreatment stress management therapies.

A common treatment technique used in hospitals is Relief from Stimulus Overload in order to reduce patients suffering from drug-induced mania. It is also used by neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the treatment of premature infants and infants born addicted to heroin, cocaine or alcohol (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). In retirement and pediatric care units REST techniques have been shows to statistically improve mental and emotional characteristics, reduce weight gain, help quit smoking, and lowered levels of agitation (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). Chamber REST has also been used in conjunction with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to lower the rates of subjective memory loss brought on by ECT (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). It is proposed that due to the aforementioned therapeutic findings and their commonalities with the prehistoric shamanic elements and techniques, it can be clearly shown that within Western culture these traditional shamanic rituals have taken on a more contemporized view of inducing a therapeutically beneficial SEE.

As a final line of evidence for shamanic elements playing a role in western culture the interrelationship of shamanic manipulation and control of magic to today’s issues of intellectual property rights shall be examined. This concept was proposed and discussed by Suchman (1989) due to his analysis that magic and intellectual property rights both involve control over abstract and linguistic perspectives and figure prominently in numerous aspects of daily life. Using the economics of intellectual property, the anthropology of law, and the ethnography of magic Suchman (1989) reaches some rather interesting conclusions.

One is how magic was intimately intertwined within preliterate society’s most sophisticated technologies and the practical components of their techniques (Suchman 1989). Because of this, magical services gained the ability to be sold or traded within the community for either tangible or intangible remuneration. By applying such social magic systems, the shaman or priesthoods dictate the conditions of access to proprietary nonintellectual commodities (such as magical talismans, rituals, psychoactive plants, and ceremonies) on the purchase of technological services that they could not otherwise monopolize, which today is reflected in what patent holders refer to as a tying agreement (Suchman 1989). Magical services also enroll strength from elaborate cultural constructs of a “mythology of risk” that controls for external threats in the same way that litigation threats chill infringement of Western intellectual property rights (Suchman 1989).

What Suchman’s (1989) perspective brings to the table is that economic theorists can gain new insights into their models through the understanding of such prehistoric methods of magic and religious information systems. Extensive innovation imposes high information costs, extensive record keeping, and flourishing economies which characterizes contemporary industrial society, but most likely may not have had much application within prehistoric communities (Suchman 1989). Prehistoric communities on the other hand cannot withstand the pressures of constantly embracing new technologies due to disruptions in the social order and established methods of production (Suchman 1989).

Yet, it is important to note that the shamanic elements of recruitment rituals and training methods restrict creativity activity and ASC experimentation to a relatively small and isolated subgroup, buffing society’s core cognitive technologies and therapies from unproven techniques (Suchman 1989). It is these exact features that are essential to the academic and scientific research methodologies. The scientific method has often been compared with the old practice of alchemy, but it also appears to share shamanic elements with the management of intellectual property and the importance of peer-reviewed publications.

4. Arguments Contra.

The most common argument against the presence of shamanic elements and their techniques being present within Western culture is that of language. The terminology issues within academia are consistently present due to the fact that each article and discussion of abstract concepts must be operationally and experimentally defined. The variables need to be set in stone.

This though is hard to achieve both during scientific discussions, as well as layman discussions, about ASC involve subjective experiences and the adjectives used to describe them. This issue can be dealt with by incorporating definitions that are based on statistical notions instead of solely the perceptually and culturally biased notions (Móró 2010). The PCI mentioned above is a clear rendition of attempts to solve this problem (Pekala et al. 1991).

It has been suggested that the therapeutic effects of SEE are nothing but a placebo effect due to set and setting and that “The hallucinogen does not in itself effect a cure but rather plays the role of a medicinal aid to be used in the total context of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy” (Schultes and Hoffmann 1979:178). The overwhelming clinical evidence indicates that hallucinogens change experience and awareness and by inducing measureable unspecifc improvements showing support against the placebo argument and has been examined previously in this paper (Pekala et al. 1991, Winkelman 1991).

5. Alternative Explanations.

It appears that the most common alternative explanation for shamanic elements and their techniques are related to the parapsychological concept of Psi. It is a term that collectively refers to reported interactions and anomalies of behavior between organisms and their environment in which information or influence has taken place that cannot be explained using current scientific measures of physical properties (Krippner 1991). Many of these reported interactions come from ethnographically and contemporary accounts of events featuring elements of shamanic practices. William James’ (1982) crucial work on the topic, The Varieties of Religious Experience, has been cited thoroughly in parapsychological literature and as well, within theological and anthropological discussions concerning religious techniques.

Essential to the parapsychological perspective of shamanic elements and techniques is the assumption that the phenomena under investigation are lawful, natural, and which can at some point be explained by the scientific discovery and revision of the current scientific worldview. A key alternative route of investigation of the psi properties of shamanic practices would be to examine a controversial revision of the scientific worldview proposed by Dean Radin (1997).

Radin’s (1997) revision involves current science to come to the realization that the ancient concepts of sacred forces and magical talents may be explained through the theory of a conscious universe. Radin (1997) states that the theories of quantum mechanics and specifically non-locality theory support the notion that psi phenomena are physically possible due to the capacity of the conscious mind to connect with and manipulate the chaos of quantum mechanics in order to impose a conscious will upon the physical world, be this through the technique of telepathy, remote viewing, clairvoyance, precognition, or psychokinesis. If such a claim is accurate then further research and discussion shall be needed on the explanation and effects that are produced during ASC and SEEs.

6. Conclusions.

The aim of this paper was to inspect the persistence of shamanic elements and their techniques within Western culture through the use of psychopharmacological substances, ritualistic practices, and cognitive training. It has been shown that the appropriate training techniques for inducing an ASC work in coaction towards attaining a SEE within various contemporary society settings. Shamanic elements of healing and their therapeutic applications were examined in order to demonstrate that their traditional uses have developed and emerged as brand new aspects of psychedelic, medical, and therapeutic culture. The investigation of topics such as magic and intellectual property rights was able to illustrate that current knowledge can benefit from an understanding of shamanic social techniques and the symbolic power behind language and ideologies.

This symbolic power of language though is the essential feature of the arguments against the ideas postulated in this paper. Terminology clearly must be dealt with in any attempt at future research related to the formation and occurrence of SEE within current scientific models. The parapsychological worldview as an alternative explanation may cause further disturbances in the debate of terminology over the physical and statistical notions of the vary properties of the universe.

7. References

Aghajanian, G.K., and Marek, G.J.

1999 Serotonin and hallucinogens. Neuropsychopharmacology 21(25):16S-23S.

Dobkin de Rios, Marlene.

1984 Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Dobkin de Rios, Marlene and Balaji Munkur.

1977 On the Serpent Cult and Psychoactive Plants. Current Anthropology 18(3):556-558.

Hayden, Brian.

2003 A Prehistory of Religion: Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints. Smithsonion Books, Washington.

James, William.

1982 The Varieties of Religious Experience. Viking Penguin Inc, London.

Krippner, Stanley.

1991 Research Strategies in the Study of Shamanism and Anomalous Experience. The Anthropology of Consciousness 2(1-2):13-19.

Meyer, J. S., and L. F. Quenzer.

2005 Psychopharmacology: Drugs, The Brain, and Behavior. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Móró, Levente.

2010 Hallucinatory altered states of consciousness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9:241-252.

Norlander, Torsten, Henrick Bergman, and Trevor Archer.

1999 Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of floatation REST. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 11(2):194-209.

Pekala, R. J., J. Steinberg, and V.K. Kumar.

1986 Measurement of phenomenological experience: phenomenology of consciousness inventory. Perceptual and Motor Skills 63(2):983-989.

Radin, Dean.

1997 The Conscious Universe: the scientific truth of psychic phenomena. HarperEdge, San Francisco.

Rock, Adam J., Jessica M. Wilson, Luke J. Johnston, and Janelle V. Levesque.

2008 Ego Boundaries, Shamanic-Like Techniques, and Subjective Experience: An Experimental Study. Anthropology of Consciousness 19(1):60-83.

Schmid, Janine Tatjana, Henrik Jungaberle, and Rolf Verres.

2010 Subjective Theories about (Self-) Treatment with Ayahuasca. Anthropology of Consiousness 21(2):188-204.

Schultes, Richard Evans, and Albert Hoffman

1979 The Plants of the Gods. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Suedfeld, Peter, and Bow, Roderick A.

1999 Health and therapeutic applications of chamber and flotation restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST). Psychology & Health 14(3):545-566.

Suchman, Mark C.

1989 Invention and Ritual: Notes on the Interrelation of Magic and Intellectual Property in Preliterate Societies. Columbia Law Review 89(6):1264-1294.

Winkelman, Michael.

1991 Therapeutic Effects of Hallucinogens. The Anthropology of Consciousness 2(3-4):15-19.

DMT and Hallucinogens. Related to REST and Sleep?

2010-11-01T03:33:00.000-07:00

I would like to start by looking at what has been called the spirit molecule, DMT. Joe Rogan has a done a wonderful job at introducing what DMT is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcqs9cDuN8 stops at 4:19. The rest is his mentioning of isolation tanks and his views on the meaning of mankind. Funny but not relevant to what I would like to discuss.

DMT is a hallucinogenic drug that is classified as a serotonin affector due to its effects being related to serotonin receptors. Other indole hallucinogens include; LSD, psilocybin and psilocin, dimethyltrypatimine(DMT) and 5-methoxy DMT (5-MeO-DMT), Bufotenine (Bufo Toad), LSA (Morning Glory Seeds), and Ibogaine.

These are the hallucinogens that where the corner stone for the Shulgin's who are a man and wife couple wrote the books PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved) and TiHKAL (Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved: The Continuation). This couple have independent created and basically standardized the reproduction and synthesis of many of today's modern synthetic drugs. It is TiHKAL that is related to this discussion for as they synthesized new chemical structures they tried them and meticulously recorded their experiences and made attempts at the proposed mechanisms of action. Their mechanisms were a tad flaky.

In the 1950's Sir John Gaddum hypothesized that LSD's effects in the brain were due to similar blockading of 5-HT receptors in the Central Nervous System.

The Locus Coeruleus projections have been proposed to be one possible mechanism involved in the experience that indole hallucinogens induce and that can be experienced both during Near-Death-Experiences (NDEs), Lucid dreaming, and sensory deprivation. Amphetamine releases NE from the Locus Coeruleus (LC) axon endings by displacing it from storage vesicles. Electrical stimulation of the LC elicits strong startle responses and hyper-responsiveness to the environment (like an amphetamine effect) invoking the “fight-or-flight" response. Psychedelic drugs also produce hyper-responsivity to sensory stimuli as an alerting response.

Aghajanian and Baraban (1980) evaluated the effects of various psychedelics on LC cell activity.

They showed that any kind of sensory stimulation (in all sense modalities) speeds up activity of LC cells (cell firing rate increases).
The effect is even more pronounced when LSD and mescaline (psychedelics) are added, but not with amphetamine or anti-depressants (which are not psychedelics).

However, direct application of LSD or mescaline to LC neurons does not enhance their firing rate to sensory stimulation. Therefore, the effects of psychedelic drugs on sensory activity in the brain must be indirect and the drugs must act on other neurons that make synaptic contact with LC neurons.

The role of the LC allows for a possible explanation for why psychedelic drugs accentuate sensory perceptions and the emotional reactions to them. In general the theory is that the LC is a funneling mechanism that integrates all sensory input, and manages our arousal response to any form of sensory input but does not identify the particular sensory information per se but the impact upon the systems threshold of excitation.

Indole & phenethylamine hallucinogens work by activating the 5HT-2A receptors that are widespread throughout the brain and that the greatest amount of 5-HT2A receptor binding has been found in the neocortical structures.

The limbic system is the main neural structure that is our decider of what is real and what is important, and when it is under high activity our experiences appear to become “hyper-real”. Another factor being that the limbic mechanisms also plays a role in the information coming out of our memory. So when ‘hyper-real space and sensations’ are being attended to the nonnormal consciousness, the raw material from our memories is not inhibited as strongly and fuses together with the physical senses and produces a hallucinatory experience.

The neural control of sleep and dreaming involves a subtle balance among: Serotonin, Norepinephrine, Acetylcholine, Adenosine, and Histamine in a widely distributed system throughout the brain. Interactions between the serotonergic and adrenergic systems in the brain are important in controlling the switch from Non-REM to REM sleep and generally regulates that dream-like mental contents remain out of waking consciousness. The effects of all kinds of psychedelic substances may be to de-repress this system. 5-HT2A receptors seem to be responsible for the bulk of the hallucinogenic effects and are due to changes in activity in; the locus coeruleus, glutamatergic neurons in the cortex, especially those that connect with the thalamus limbic system activation.

Another proposed mechanism is shown here in the second diagram. It is a hypothesized wiring diagram, depicting interactions among Serotonin, GABA, Norepinephrine and Glutamate in the generation of hallucinations.

Discussion:

The reason for this brief view into hallucinogens and their mechanisms is that these systems may be what Suefeld & Borrie’s work on REST and sensory deprivation where getting to with the idea that stimulus hunger hypothesis proposes that while the body is deprived of sensory experiences there becomes an increased sensitivity to any information that is available, both externally and internally. Yet the mechanisms involved in producing the effects seen in the use of REST have been thought to be similar to the mechanisms used in sleep. So here I am, with possible evidence for three different routes towards a similar experience of visual hallucinations and a possible safe environment to examine the impact of Sacred Ecstatic Experiences upon individual’s consciousness.

There will be a future post on a possible route for me to take this term by conducting a small introspective research study on SEEs, REST, and visual imagery.

References:

Aghajanian, G.K., and Marek, G.J. (1999). Serotonin and hallucinogens. Neuropsychopharmacology, 21.

Meyer, J. S., and Quenzer, L. F. (2005) Psychopharmacology: Drugs, The Brain, and Behavior. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.

2010-10-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

Last Minute Tattoo Ponderance Survey.

2010-10-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here are the words for the new addition to my skin tomorrow. There is a numbered list of the various fonts I had in mind. Give it a perusal this evening if you get a chance and let me know what you think or which number catches your eye.

Thanks a bunch for the contributions in advance.

Farm Trooper Quoteage

2010-10-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

A lone Farm Trooper has spent his spare time, between Hoth placements and stellar runs on a clunky EX-F, scanning the verse for random signals. Here are a collection of what his eyes have read, dictated at his ranch on Corellia.

A Pseudo Definition of Consciousness @ 3:10 AM

2010-09-20T03:13:00.000-07:00

Don't believe the human eye

In sunlight or in shade

The puppet show of sight and sense

Is the Devil's Masquerade

- Principia Discordia

I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment,

And for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment.

– Gotama Buddha.

Recognizing consciousness for what it is is hard, for why wouldn't it be? No one has ever solved it. Intellectuals to this day argue about not only what consciousness is, but even over the probabilistic timelines in our primordial primate past when the first simian recognized that 'This is mine, my territory, my space, my ego, MINE!'

We often do not stop at random and walk up to the closest bug and stare deeply into its five complex eyes that consist of hundreds of lenses and ask ourselves, 'Mr. Bug, do you willfully choose to point those lenses around? Or do you simply react to physical motion in an automatic realm of robothood?'

Self-recognition seems to be commonly one of the necessary and sufficient conditions (more on these another time) often used in the philosophical treatments that have been trying to establish a specialized jargon that all scientists and fellow academics can agree upon using. The debate of what words to use when defining consciousness is central to what I believe consciousness to actually be.

So, therefore it goes that since I believe consciousness to be something, it must then be a tangible thing. Something measureable and predictable, containing some form of manipulability, and all the other verbal categories that you may associate with this. Nagal's discourse,What it is like to be a bat?, had a diamond bullet that needs mentioning in this discussion of consciousness. Consciousness contains a wide range of intrinsic features that have been termed, Qualia, which is the way that external and internal sensations look and feel to you. The concept of qualia causes strange loops of thought to occur where it may be possible that what you hold in your mind to be the color "Red" may in fact not be the same shade of "Red" as anyone else's, and yet you continue to function as a sane individual.

Consciousness within the neurological field seems to take on a materialistic biological role as the sum of all the physical sensations that one perceives through experience. Those sensations are converted into chemical bonds and electrical signals that then voyage across the complex neurological circuits of the nervous system to reach the specially evolved areas of the cortex where the brain takes the stimulus information to be processed by the attention and memory systems that then allows for the selective construction and preservation of experience to be considered Real and Immediate, and all of this happens in milliseconds.

My brain then must have made up reality entirely on its own? Since transferring my ideas and thoughts to others is limited to language, I never really know whether others know really what I'm talking about. William James put it elegantly when he said; "The breach from one mind to another is perhaps the greatest breach in nature". Which isn't that bad of a thing mind you. The good thing about attempting to define consciousness is that it isn't just about thought. Consciousness involves emotion, feeling, and empathy. I once heard that, 'We are not thinking beings with emotion, we are emotional beings that think'.

Emotion is another one of those necessary and sufficient conditions that resonate within the consciousness jargon pool. Emotion has been the main drive behind the prehistoric attempts in the study of consciousness, Gods, and demons, in an attempt to understand what it is and who they are. Shamans, Mystics, Monks, and Priests have willfully caused themselves harm and ecstasy through such acts as; fasting, Asana yoga, sensory deprivation and social isolation, the Kabbalah, pranayama, Tantric yoga, and other various masochistic practices in order to remove their egos and dismantle their realities with the goal of taking control over their own nervous systems and reprogramming their individual reality tunnels to match their cultural and ideological schema of things.

Oddly enough, I have a sense that the various occult systems from within the anthropological and theological record hold a stronger connection with the cognitive and computation theories of consciousness than the biological. This reasoning of mine comes from the concepts that these occult systems are simply other techniques of physiological and neurological experiments attempting to multiply and accelerate the development and evolution of our own consciousness. Israel Regardie described Magick as "a mnemonic system of psychology to train the Will and Imagination".

This strong connection between the mystical view of consciousness and the cognitive systems view of consciousness comes from their ability to incorporate the theories and concepts of quantum state-vectors and the non-locality principle into their definitions and theories of consciousness. Einstein showed us how the material universe is made up of smaller elements inside the larger. Quantum Consciousness, as Roger Penrose describes it, is the thought that the mental universe can be whatever we shape it to be. It's the larger inside the smaller. This line of thought then allows for a view of panpsychism to be applied, which is the claim that everything, including nonliving systems, has some degree of consciousness. Pansychism is favored amongst Strong AI theorists and can surprisingly be viewed in more traditional religions compared to the more popular book religions.

All this being said, I shall end with the words of two pioneers, and a music video, on the conscious thought about consciousness. Since my own musing obviously require more meditations and less aphorisms.

"The trick is to concentrate on the reality projected through the printed page. Every sentence is a signal from another world, a nervous system different from yours with which you can interface synergistically"

– Robert Anton Wilson

"The influence of the senses have in men overpowered the thought to the degree that the walls of time and space have come to look solid, real and insurmountable … Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the power of the mind. Man is capable of abolishing them both."

– Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Farm Trooper Quoteage

2010-09-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

Aztec Unconscious and Synchronicity Explored

2010-09-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I came across the following doodle amongst my notes as I cleared out a drawer. It was done by a friend and it took me a moment to recollect when exactly he had drawn it. I soon realized it was done during a cram session for a previous course on the Aztec and we were watching the documentary (which, I have learned within the Peep Diaries that a Canadian made the 1st documentary and another fellow Canuck coined the term) Blood and Flowers - In Search of the Aztecs.

What struck me about it was the interesting idea that I read this morning by Jung on defining the features of synchronicity. His definition is as follows, "Synchronicity designates the parallelism of time and meaning between psychic and psychological physical events, which scientific knowledge so far has been unable to reduce to a common principle." He admits how his term explain nothing, but this now allows for the idea that those chance happenings we experience are real and the enticement of them dwells within the waiting for the other shoe to hit. The when of the matter is what creates that aura of the unknown and mystical. Coincidences that I have perceived across time baffle me the most. When it's the day after day similar theme within those chance happenings.

Getting back to the drawing. It was the collective imagery of the face within a face and the specific animals that he choose to use, which obviously was highly influenced by the documentary and his mood. The affective state is where I am curious as these are the inclinations that Jung was getting at in his discourse. By mentioning the JB Rhine psi experiments on predicting cards and such he points out how the affective state was correlated to the mood of the subjects. "An initial mood of faith and optimism makes for good results. Skepticism and resistance the opposite effect, that is, they create an unfavorable disposition."

That statement is at the heart of all paranormal research, hypnosis, altered states of consciousness, and even conventional therapy treatments. Set and setting are the vitals keys to varying the viewpoint of one's own and others reality tunnel. Prehistoric shamans did this very often and many religions and nationalists today use these features to aid in persuasion. It is why all sides of the ideological landscape use the same, or similar, methods but for opposite goals, the tools that work are always utilized.

Some quick examples that come to mind on the influence of set and setting during emotional interactions are; Khalid Abdul Muhammad holding a political debate on the site of the Amadou Diallo shooting, the scarab beetles appearance during one of Jung's therapy sessions, rituals of isolation like the Temptation of Christ or the Xhosa peoples custom of male circumcision, the use of "Plant Teachers" as Cognitive Tools, and even maybe the glitzed up magic antics of Criss Angel.

Jung groups such synchronistic phenomena into three categories:

The coincidence of a psychic state in the observer with a simultaneous, objective, external event that corresponds to the psychic state or content (e.g., the scarab), where there is no evidence of a causal connection between the psychic state and the external event, and where, considering the psychic relativity of space and time, such a connection is not even conceivable.
The coincidence of a psychic state with a corresponding (more or less simultaneous) external event taking place outside the observer's field of perception, i.e., at a distance, and only verifiable afterward (e.g., the Stockholm fire).
The coincidence of a psychic state with a corresponding, not yet existent future event that is distant in time and can likewise only be verified afterward.

The first category is what I believe would be most relevant to the rediscovery of the drawn image and my day's readings and assignments. There still remains in my mind though as to whether or not it was not simply due to the affective state of my mind in the morning and the priming features of reading Jung's article. Either way I was happy with the events.

Article:

Jung, Carl Gustav

1973, Appendix: On Synchronicity. In Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, translated by R. F. C. Hull, pp. 104-115. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Glasses Fascination

2010-09-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

It always gets under my skin how the labor day weekend always ends up giving me two first weeks of classes. Yes, this is menial and somewhat contrived. But for some reason it still bugs me. Like having to do forklift training twice in one year. It doesn't hurt but has somewhat reasonably left me feeling like the previous week didn't really count for anything.

On the other hand, while Bill McNeil was making naked phone calls the other night I was rummaging around /b/ and seriously could not stop laughing at how Free Google Phone Service in North America has created another opportunity for crank calls to get a little more personal. Worker's Of The World Unite! Must have read about at least 6 posts about managers being called and told quite frankly how much of a douche their daughters were, how bad their toupee looked while on the can, and too seriously pop that zit on their forehead. All in crystal clear sound and quality. For Free.

Oh ya, and I got new glasses and find that I look better in black and white.

Omnivorous Trifles

2010-09-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

"An omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles" - sherlock holmes

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Nude Beach Thoughts

2010-09-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Peepers, Peepers, Where Did You Get Those Peepers?

2010-09-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've started reading the book The Peep Diaries: How we're learning to love watching ourselves and our neighbors by Hal Niedzviecki and was taken aback by it and while reading it on the bus yesterday I could not help but realize that even though I was surround by people I was oblivious to them. My whole focus was reading about John Egly and Trading Spouse with the distorted presentational tactics that the TV producers use to make the show. The funniest thing during the ride was that I got a text from the Lady and made a comment about Trading Spouses. Later that night we chatted about how in the UK the whole concept of the average joe was more geared towards families of chavs and deadbeats moms.

The gripping part of the Peep Diaries that has grabbed my attention is that the book is full of subtle tips and tricks to use while creating and maintaining the online persona that is blogging, forums, social networks. These all form Peep Culture. I loved how he writes that the whole transition of the word peep has been transferred out of the negative connotations and becomes a regular form of pop culture. Trolling craigslist personal ads are always great for a few minutes of laughs and WTF!'s.

That being said. I've got a new office setup at home and between school and work I'm going to attempt to transition the way in which I participate in this Peep Culture.

Nude Beach Thoughts

2010-08-31T19:07:00.000-07:00

Farm Trooper Quoteage

2010-08-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

A Sunday Afternoon Chatting With Some Mormons [Follow up]

2010-08-10T22:20:00.001-07:00

From: askaquestion19@mtc.byu.edu
To: gravitrons_rule_my_world@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 18:56:43 -0600
Subject: hi

Farlowe,

Here is something we would like you to watch before we call you tomorrow at 19:00. This is a short video that explains a little more about the experience that Joseph Smith went through.

http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/the-restoration/video/the-restoration

Alison and Stephanie

missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

From: askaquestion19@mtc.byu.edu
To: gravitrons_rule_my_world@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:39:51 -0600
Subject: hi

Farlowe,

We apologize for not being able to call last. Are you available tonight at 19:00 again? Let us know if this works for you.

Alison and Stephanie

missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

From: gravitrons_rule_my_world@hotmail.com
To: askaquestion19@mtc.byu.edu
Subject: RE: hi
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:29:51 -0600

That night was no good. Try again tomorrow. And if the receptionist gives you any problems. Tell them "Farlowe's bills are paid. Just connect the call."

A Sunday Afternoon Chatting With Some Mormons.

2010-08-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Mormon.org chat.

A representative will be with you shortly.

Me: Hello!?!

Agent [Alison] is ready to assist you.

Alison: hi

Alison: this is Alison and Stephanie

Alison: how are you today?

Agent [stephanie] has joined the chat.

Me: Ahoy ahoy. I'm not to shabby. How about yourselves?

stephanie: We are doing well thank you.

stephanie: What has prompted you to visit our site today?

Me: No worries. I had this long debating chat with one of your fellow members the other week on my front porch the other week and found him quite knowledge. Was just looking into further information.

Alison: what interested you in what was said?

Me: Ahh well, we started off with topics about the future of man and our souls.

Alison: were you able to learn about Joseph Smith?

Me: I'm currently a smart man and know my philosophy of worlded old dead bearded white guys, some other fellows as well. We did mention Old Joe, but I was interested the dichotomy between the Catholic Church's view of Jesus' (in which I was raised) and that of Joesph's.

Alison: I am not familiar with that word, sorry

Me: You could always just Google the word you didn't know. It

Me: is amazing what the vast net can do.

Me: What confused me the most about the Mormon viewpoint was the collectiveness of your communities. What word was that?

stephanie: congregations?

stephanie: wards?

Me: Wards.

Me: What are they?

stephanie: A ward designed geographically.

stephanie: Based on where you live you go at a certain time to a certain building.

Me: So wards are where the locale people meet up to praise the Lord? Does this happen on Sundays?

stephanie: Yes.

Me: Cool, cause Sundays work best for me.

Me: Do I have to sign any contracts for joining up?

Me: The guy (Mark) was a little shy about the involvement. Can I just show up and eat the waffer and be good and right with Jesus?

Alison: anyone is welcome to come to church on sunday

Alison: to become a member of the Church it is important to learn about the beliefs of the church and find out for ourselves if it is true

Me: Excellent! So what's the Pearl of Great Price all about?

stephanie: The Pearl of Great Price is ancient records translated by Jsoeph Smith.

Me: and it talks about what?

stephanie: It talks more about our purpose in life and the Plan that God created for us.

Alison: do you ever wonder what God's plan is for your life?

Me: Sorry for the delay.

Me: I do wonder that quite often.

Me: Where am I going?

Me: What am I here to do?

Me: How is it all connected?

Me: What's been up with Mel Gibson lately?

Me: Those types of things.

stephanie: We learn through the scriptures and a living prophet that God has a plan for us.

stephanie: A book that we read called the Book of Mormon helps us better understand really what our purpose is here.

Me: Tidy. Who's the living prophet?

Alison: that we have been given time on the earth to live and then prepare to meet God

Alison: our living prophet today is Thomas Monson

Alison: and he is God's mouthpiece on the earth today

Alison: have you read from the Book of Mormon before?

Me: Man that guy seems cool. The Boy Scouts gave him a Silver Buffalo! And he was friends with Ronald Regan. That dude was so awesome back in the day. Don't you think?

Me: I haven't read the Book of Mormon yet, it hasn't been on any of my course reading lists.

Me: Is it kinda like The Good Book 3.0?

Alison: it is another testament of Jesus Christ

Alison: recorded by prophets anciently for us to read today

Alison: we would love to be able to share more with you about the Book of Mormon at another time, over the phone

Alison: would you like to learn more?

Me: Steller! Must be like the Dead Sea Scrolls. I'd love to learn more too! I never liked Mark or Luke's take on the bearded one. They made him all sissy like. Don't you think? Like Jesus just lost his urges to be human.

stephanie: What time zone are you in?

Me: GMT -08:00

stephanie: What is a good number to reach you at?

Me: Well I am available to chat for lengths of time mostly between 17:30 to 03:00 at 604-681-9121 [The Church of Scientology Vancouver]. Should I read up on some Pearly Wisdom before you call so I am prepared to find out about your ideas and ways?

Alison: if we can get your email we can send you something to look at before we talk again?

Alison: what time is it right now for you?

Me: 17:28

Me: My email is gravitons_rule_my_world@hotmail.com

Me: I know it's a silly email but I've had it since high school.

stephanie: It is 6:32pm here. Does tomorrow at 7pm your time work?

Me: It might let me check my planner. One second please.

Alison: does that time work?

Me: Ok, 19:00 works for me. Just ask the Receptionist to forward you to ext. 187. Are you sure that by looking more into the Mormon Ideologies that I was be able to help friends, family and strangers in many situations and circumstances: questions or problems in relationships, anxiety, tutoring a child in his or her learning skills, teenage stress, self-esteem, helping a family member overcome drug or alcohol dependency, guiding a criminally inclined adolescent back on the road of self-respect and honesty, resolving a dispute at work or at home, helping a friend or associate better organize his life or handle signs of stress?

Alison: we believe that the gospel can help us in any circumstances that we go through

Alison: can we also ask how old you are?

Me: Wiked Cool Ally! That's just what I need to hear. My biological form is 26 but I feel that my celestial soul is 2.5 billion years old, my mammalian soul is quite young 1.2 million years old and as for my reptilian soul, I feel that it is so intertwined with the multiverse that it cannot be calculated. But mainly I'm 26 according to my driver's license.

Alison: okay Farlowe, we will send an email with something to look at and we look forward to speaking with you tomorr

Alison: tomorrow

Me: Tidy. Thanks again Alison and Stephanie. Stay gold until Sol implodes is a fiery flash of nuclear power and wipes the solar system clean.

stephanie: Thank you for your time Farlowe.

Me: No No. Really. Thank You Both.

Me: Thank you kindly, sweetly, and deeply.

Alison: of course

Me: Before I go could you help me out with one quick question?

Me: What's been up with Mel Gibson lately?

stephanie: Farlowe we are not sure.

stephanie: As missionaries we devote our time to sharing this unique message for 18 months.

Me: Understood. Was a tough question. Don't you still surf the net and shit? And I thought a year had only 12 months.

stephanie: We serve for a year and a half.

Me: Heavy. Okie dokie. I got to go, my buddies just arrived and we got some stoned Monopoly to play. I really like earning fancy colored bills in big piles. Must be a Canadian thing I Think.

stephanie: Thank you for allowing us to share this with you.

stephanie: Bye.

Agent [stephanie] has left the chat.

The chat session has ended.

Me: Farlowe Out!

Me's got a job, yet alas no career leaps to bound.

2010-08-05T23:21:00.001-07:00

Where I'm a working. That's right. I have a job. Deal with it.

Tap Fish App Review and Tips

2010-06-18T19:16:00.001-07:00

Recently fooled around with the Tap Fish app on my iPhone. Found it kind of fun and great for wasting time on the bus. Basically you have a tank and some coins to start. You buy some eggs with the coins, put them in the tank, and watch them hatch and swim their sweet freedom.

The ingame market revolves around coins and fishbucks. Coins are earned by doing things or selling fish. Fishbucks are purchased through the app and iTunes, or earned free through promotions or offers. I ignored these fishbuck things, money goes towards the real fish.

Now, you can feed them, love them, raise them, sell them for more coins, or ignore them, and watch them eventually float around the tank solemnly. This can be avoided by feeding them once every 25 hours.

The concept is basic farming of fish from here to gain exp and coins to purchase decorations, backgrounds, different species of fish and marine life, more tanks, and then there is also breeding.

Breeding involves two species of fish that are marked as breedable, your ingame breeding tank (more can be purchased for coins or fishbucks). By selecting two different species, you can breed them together to create a hybrid. Fans have made various guides on Facebook, here is another example. Even something about a Tap Fish App world record.

Tips to Start:

- Begin with Green Snapper

- Fill the tank one egg at a time and feed it. Doubles your exp.

- Wait 4 hours or so, then sell the Green Snappers. You can sell them all at once from the menu (at 15% loss), or individually.

- Save up to 1200 coins or so for a second tank. Use this second tank to keep your breeders separate from the farming tanks.

- Continue with Green Snappers or Yellow Snappers.

- Save up for a new background (or get a 4 fishbucks one with the free starter fishbucks), 10 Starfish, and 10 plants. With these you earn about 100% Happiness for your fish, thus giving a selling bonus.

- To make coins quicker, use your decked out tank to sell your fish for the bonus. Using the inventory to swap in your fish from any other farming tanks. This allows you to not have to spend coins on every single tank.

Starter Fish:

- Green Snapper (4hrs): 50 adults = cost of 500 = profit of 250

- Yellow Snapper (6hrs): 50 adults = cost of 600 = profit of 350

- Red Longtail (12hrs): 50 adults = cost of 750 = profit of 500

- Asia Arowana (24hrs): 50 adults = cost of 1800 = profit of 1200

Exotic Fish:

- Goldfish (9hrs): 50 adults = cost of 700 = profit of 600

- Long Banner Fish (24hrs): 50 adults = cost of 5250 = profit of 1250

- Chromis (24hrs): 50 adults = cost of 8750 = profit of 5750

- Golden Dwarf (24hrs): 50 adults = cost of 14000 = profit of 11900

Tips for Earners (if you really spend that much time on it):

- Electric eels sell for the highest profit of 6,750,000 coins. Then Sharks and Killer Whales.

- Takes 40 tanks of Golden Dwarfs to earn 1 million coins

And I’m spent.

Potwory na kawę!

2010-06-18T13:14:00.001-07:00

Care of: Roslyn Ricketts.

The Log Lady's Sage Words Of Wisdom.

2010-06-18T13:05:00.001-07:00

"How does creamed corn fit into the universe? What is creamed corn? Is creamed corn a symbol for something else? I think so."

Clever and paying for it.

2010-06-09T12:16:00.001-07:00

Care of: Roslyn Ricketts.

Telecommunications and FBI in bed together. WTF?

2010-01-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

This morning I read two articles on the bus that simply shocked me to the core about the intertwined nature of the security organizations and the telecommunications companies. Here is a link to the first article.

FBI, Telecoms Teamed to Breach Wiretap Laws

This is simply scary as fuck and I can't believe the line that states that regardless of how the evidence was claimed, illegally, it still can be used against the defendant. As well that they are utilizing a social network mode of acquiring who their targets are calling.

What freaked me out the most was the case of reporters numbers being traced and their connection calls with their contacts. It seems that the tactic that is being used to find out who the reporters informants are and thereby DIRECTLY breaking the laws of freedom of speech and a reporter/informant protection.

But, the actual practice being used does not in the least surprise me. By bedding with the telecom companies directly with the FBI it gives obvious benefits. I wonder what the Ruskies are up to in the EU and only God and Buddha have a true insight into the Chinese practices that oh so carelessly deny their citizens any rights of digital privacy.

May the tech's see the light and save us all.

FBI Broke Law Spying on Americans’ Phone Records, Post Reports

This second article can be tied into the previous one on the vast practice of telecom and security organizations deeply tied and merging together. Hell, even the telecom employees had short cuts on their desktop for ILLEGAL forms to allow quick printing an signing away any of our privacy rights. I found it odd how this information was published by a reporter working for the Post, while the Post was one of the focuses of the FBI and their investigation into reporters phone records.

Hitler and Stalin must be laughing in hell about how the nations of freedom that fought and gave so much to stop them now have surpassed all their wildest dreams of control.

Bonobo Invasion Blog Post

2009-12-03T01:42:00.001-08:00

Join the Bonobo Invasion!

Support the species by buying these images on a whole range great products.

Profits from the sales go to the Bonobo Conservation Initiative.

Another one for the Unknown.

2009-06-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Doing up the road trip pics on mugbook, and came across something interesting. The more convincing videos of ufos showed some weird cloud-like object whippin' through larger cloud formations.
On the picture, note that there are hardly any neighboring clouds. This doesn't make much sense from what I gathered from geography classes, it just seems odd for there to be such small (even rogue) condensed air parcels with no evidence of air pressure consistency.
What does this mean..quite possibly nothing at all, I may be just talking out of my ass, and these air parcels were tossed up by the hillside, but it's still suspicious. Becoming less puzzled as to why I had the sudden impulse to look for a telescope, but then again camping with a telescope would be sick.

- Dominic Grabowski

When the Eagles Hunt.

2009-05-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

The other week Boris and I were riding around Stanley park and witnessed nature at its finest.

We saw two eagles chasing a seagull. At first we thought that simply the seagull must have agitated them and they were trying to push him away, but our initial impression turned out to be wrong and we saw a wonderful sky fight between them. Then right in the middle of the air one of the eagles swooped down and grabbed the seagull into its vicious talons. It carried it around in the air for a minute and dropped it. The gull landed in the water with a splash and started to attempt a take off and an escape for its life. The other eagle would not allow this and came in for a second barrage and grab it as well. They did their tango in the water and came to a rest. The action was over....

Or was it.

One eagle flew back towards the park to what we assumed was their nest. The other continued to float in the water, remaining with its prey. Then after a few minutes it took off to take its meal back to their young. This would be no simple task though. For once over land again a small murder of crows thought to themselves that they wanted a free seagull platter and chased and hounded the eagle, all in a vain hope that it would drop the corpse.Alas to no avail though did they succeed. A few passes and twists and turns and the eagle lost them, or they simply gave up from the effort. With a final sweep through the branches of trees the eagle and its prey were off to relish in its well earned meal.

Sylvester’s dilemma.

2009-05-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

All cat owners have concerns about their pets. They are tied to them and treasure their company, they calm collected cool while lounging away on the windowsill on a sunny evening. There is also the concern about where they shit. The litter box of their life.

Litter-Robot Inc. has the answer. It now can clean up all that biological byproduct, so you don’t have to. The future of scatology is here.

Yet, no matter how much we pamper our cats we need to remember that, as these pictures show in a cute manner, they need to remember the instincts they’ve gained over generations beyond our meager conception.

A cat should always retain that basic drive to hunt its prey.

There should be conflict and no turning away.

Smelling the fear in the prey should increase its desire to finish the attack.

If the prey turns aggressive, offense is the better defense.

At no time, give up the higher ground.

Do NOT sleep with the enemy.

If the problem of pampering you cat turns them into this cat, remember that without true instincts it might not be able to be avoided becoming this, a useless fucking cat.

Not only the kids are users.

2009-04-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

So finals are almost done.

Cramming and reading, note taking and testing, preparing and work-a-holics.

All the fine things that are associated with these activities are always assumed to show the iniative and potential that people have towards getting their work done and exercising their brain power to achieve something.

Yet, there has always been the fact that there are those substances that are used aid and increase the physiological limits that occur.

From anabolic steroids to build muscle and increase physical strength, even cases of women during past Olympics getting pregnant and then aborting the baby prior to the main event to utilize the extra growth and energy that is connected with raising the fetus. Students around the world have been shown and admitted to using stimulants to help them stay up and focus on their work. Such drugs as Provigil, Ritalin, Adderal, and even Meth.

Recently though there was a insightful prank by the World Anti-Brain Doping Authority (WABDA) releasing a statement that scientists would soon be the target of a crackdown on performance-enhancing drugs.

Scientists and professors must have been cringing in their desks, wondering where to hide their stash and how to clean out their piss quickly. I'd suggest hiding it in the piles of notes lying around and drinking more apple and blueberry juice daily.

Best thing about this though is that it made me wonder about why this would cause such a stir amongst the professionals. If it's acceptable for one to down RedBull and coffee until the twitching and chatter can be heard miles away, what's wrong with minizing the cost and effects by popping a pill or two a day when the extra juice is needed?

Sign me up for the time when I can implant a neurotransmitter dispensing device rooted in my cerebellum and can have the ultimate controled boosterjuice.

Dinosaurs in Rocketships Series: Part 2.

2009-03-08T12:04:00.001-07:00

2009-02-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

Looking down at my watch and seeing that my break is almost over, I head to the bathroom to relieve myself. My eyes wander up and down the common graffiti until I notice a quote written in charcoal black that I haven’t seen before. “The Crowd is Untruth.” With a jiggle and a shake I gave a little laugh.

While washing my hands I stare at my reflection in the mirror. Thick black glasses, five o’clock shadow, a white collared shirt covered by a blue and white striped sweater.

How many other men look likes this?

I dried my hands and left the café.

Walking along the street I glance at the passerby’s, the clean-cut suits, the popped collars, the lulu lemons, and the long brightly colored scarves. Yet, over and over again I keep repeating the quote from the stall in my head.

“The Crowd is Untruth.”

Arriving at the office I walk by that cute secretary Louise, with her pink hair in buns and reading the newest issue of Vice, and give her a smile and head down the hall to my cubicle. I’ve always wondered why she works in our office, for she doesn’t seem the type.

Passing Mark I get the common reaction.
“Ben, oh my god man, they are coming out with Street Fighter four for PS3 and XBOX. Dude we are so getting a case and I’m kicking your digital ass.”
“Hahaha, no shit. You can try but I’m sure you’ll lose like you always do.”
“We’ll see soon enough.”

Back at my desk I settle in for another 6 hours of punching in the numbers, crunching the spreadsheets, and being a regular Excel wizard.

“The Crowd is Untruth.”
“What was that Ben?”
“Nothing Mark. Just something I read earlier.”

Google search brings up the author of the quote in seconds, Soren Kierkegaard. The article is titled “That Individual” from Kierkegaard’s book On Himself.

Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth, so that (to consider for a moment the extreme case), even if every individual, each for himself in private, were to be in possession of the truth, yet in case they were all to get together in a crowd – a crowd to which any sort of decisive significance is attributed, a voting, noisy, audible crowd – untruth would at once be in evidence.

This hit me at once as an insight I’ve known but never been able to place into words. We can’t all be in the right with our own goals and ethics towards how others run their lives. I read on to see how he states how man is akin to a deity when one attains the truth through God. I am no man of God but I see the concept of man being God. Even Kierkegaard was concerned with the growing importance of earthly and material goods within people’s lives and he says how this moves man away from his kinship with God as the helper.

It does away with it or transforms it into a fable, and puts it in place the modern (or, we might rather say, the old pagan) notion that to be a man is to belong to a race endowed with reason, to belong to it as a specimen, so that the race or species is higher than the individual, which is to say that there are no more individuals but only specimens.

That makes no sense to me. We are a species aren’t we? Darwin and evolution taught us that. Humanism and all that. I reflect upon something that had been hidden deep in my mind since my college days. That we are single threads within a tapestry and what is one thread compared to the whole? I look around the office and everyone is busy with something, each thread working within the pattern. Kierkegaard goes on to state how the crowd provides a blanket of blamelessness and cover from their cowardice from being an individual. Such an example being that even in a crowd against Christ no one would step up and spit upon him. Obviously Kierkegaard lived in a less atheistic era, for I know of a few who would pay for the chance to spit upon Christ given the opportunity. Yet thinking about it, even with that act I believe, they would use as a means of social advantage and bragging rights to gain more respect within their crowd. “The Crowd is Untruth.”

If… there were an assemblage of thousands or more and the truth was to be decided by ballot, then this is what one should do…: one should in godly fear give expression to the fact that the crowd, regarded as a judge over ethical and religious matters, is untruth, whereas it is eternally true that every man can be the one. This is truth.

I cannot agree to this. It sounds too fascist to me. If the crowd is untruth when voting and deciding on these ethical, religious and political matters then does this imply that only one who knows the truth should act upon it regardless of public opinion, or fool the crowd into believing that what they are doing is following one’s inspired truth. Hitler did this and that truth he followed killed millions because of fear and hatred towards the Jewish people, he caused a world war over power and domination to spread the word of “One People, One Leader, One Reich, GERMANY!” I must finish this and see what it leads to.

Kierkegaard leads on to how the way for an individual witness of the truth to spread it in a grass roots fashion by talking personally with others in the act of not educating them, but allowing them to decided for themselves on how to be their own individual. He bashes the anonymous authors who peddle their untruth opinions on the moral, ethical, and religions matters that they would not have the courage to state as an individual. This is rampant in our Information Age full of Internet news, blogs, message boards and forums. Everyone has an avatar to hide behind. I am guilty of this myself. I post my comments and insults behind a mask of identity, joining the crowd with confidence of no retaliation.

The communicator of the truth can only be a single individual. And again the communication of it can only be addressed to the individual; for the truth consists precisely in that conception of life which is expressed precisely by the individual.

What truth is this? I see it now as it unravels. All those major changes in my life and thoughts have always been achieved through conversations with those closest, those persuasive souls for imposing their ideas upon me and allowing me to choose which path I should follow. It’s how I fell into this career path, how I choose to live my life of common entertainment and earthly pleasures. These days I have no moral goals to achieve. Even my idea of politics is what I feel to be the common consensus of what is right and just. I assumed that the past men and women who have thought and fought for these rights must have been driven by the truths that they held.

Yet, these individuals change the mindset of the crowd by treating them as a crowd and not as individuals allowed to choose for themselves. For the political will within those advocates assume that they must persuade the crowd as if they were full weak and impotent individuals. Now I must finish this reading before lunch break starts.

“The individual” is the category through which, in a religious respect, this age, all history, the human race as a whole must pass… My task is one which at least does not expose me to any such danger of being trampled underfoot, for my task was as a humble servant… to provoke, if possible, to invite, to stir up the many to press through this defile of “the individual,” through which, however, no one can pass except by becoming the individual – the contrary being a categorical impossibility. And yet, if I were to desire an inscription for my tombstone, I should desire none other than “That Individual” – if that is not now understood, it surely will be.

Like a wall of bricks falling upon my head, like a hot coal on my seat, I jump up and look around, heads all focused upon their screens busy typing away and following the corporate mandate of obeying the crowd of our customers and fulfilling their orders and commissions efficiently.

“Ben you okay? You look a little out of it. Taking off for lunch early?”
“Mark, I just got some bad news, tell the boss I’m off home and will be back tomorrow.”
“Okay, feel better man.”

I walk towards the door and pass by Louise.

“Hey there Ben, you look like you just had a kick to the soul. You wanna talk about it over lunch? I can ditch early, no problem.”
“You’re right I have. If you’d like to join me you can. I was just going to head home early and take some time to think. But talking about it might help.”
“Ok, let’s go.”

Walking down the street I couldn’t say much, I felt as if surrounded by a herd, I just kept walking in step with those in front of me and beside Louise. We passed by many decent places to stop and eat but I was so lost in thought that I couldn’t direct my feet towards their doors.

Finally Louise grabs my arm and says,

“Ben, stop for a second would you. You look like a zombie in fear. If they feel fear that is, I always thought of them as just simple cowards.”
“Why did you say that?”
“Say what? Zombies are cowards? I don’t know just came into my head.”
“Well that’s kind of related to what got me all stirred up. Lets stop here and grab a coffee and go head to that bench over there and I’ll tell you.”

We went into the café and I bought a coffee for Louise and myself. We walked over to the bench and sat down. I recounted my experience with the quote earlier that morning and how when I got back to work I looked it up and read that article. How I never really thought about things such as that and how I’ve always been content with being part of the crowd, a normal and productive member of society.

“Hahaha, Ben I never thought reading some philosophy would stir you up so much. It makes me happy to hear this. I’ve been working on my degree for 5 years now and still am surprised and excited when I get inspired emotionally and mentally by the writings of some past philosopher. Maybe what you need is a change of perspective. A little more elaboration of the ideas and a chance to talk about with others, allow you to make up your own mind about your life and choices. Here’s my number and if you want to talk just give me a call, I need to head back to work. Thanks for the coffee Ben.”

With those words she got up and left. I was left their alone, thinking to myself. And it hit me again.

I am a single biological linguistic individual with no value within a crowd, but the choices I make, the life I lead as an individual I should aspire to and find value in. Knowing that I can make a choice and be content in those choices is my own eternal truth.

I walked home with a smile. Once home I slept.

The next morning at work I asked Louise for suggested classes, I told Mike to be ready for a night of digital battles, and I sat down to a new world with faith in my choices.

If Money = Debt, What do we do?

2009-02-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

After watching Zeitgiest: Addendum, many things spring to mind.

The US has learned how to use invisible money, “the principle”, and interest to control the poor into giving up their labor and tangible work. This allows controlling them into slavery where they feed and house themselves into debt. Again the Global Corporations, 40% which originated from the US have taken this debt/bullying/death tactics into the Global Market.

As a student in debt and struggling to better myself by achieving that BA which society claims to hold as a way to establish myself in this emergent society I can feel the grip of the system playing its role. Since my social skills are low compared to those who can use their abilities to communicate and convince those in ‘business’ that can aid them as being a valuable investment, I must go the route of educational investment.

This though costs money, which is really just debt. Therefore it seems that I have positioned my self to attain an imaginary level of convenience by creating that debt load to be paid off once my credentials are in place and I can attain a job/career where they will receive their payments, but really they don’t want their payments sooner, interest is where they can place me in their grip longer, like the tobacco companies and their success on that habit of mine. A whole life to pay rather than killing me quickly and ending my contributions.

This though has ramifications even backwards towards my parents. I couldn’t get a loan at first without someone to back me. All for the banks ability to collect their ‘donations’ and interest. Where is their backer though? Don’t they just make the money up digitally once they’ve given it to me? Why should my parents have to potentially become foreclosed, or threatened to take more mortgages out on property that has had the toil and labor and time and love that my parents have put into it.

These questions plague me, but are common as water and bread. It is by far a terrible system that is in place. Thoughts of changing it all and making a new form of society that allows for equality, freedom (as hard as that may be to define), life and health, happiness and safety from ‘evil’. These are easy to image but close to impossible to achieve unless with a wide source of disposible income and political connections.

“Profit” is something that sticks out and crawls along the skin like a flesh eating disease the most when applied to attempting these changes towards a political societies focus and goals for a competitive future. Scarcity has brought to birth the concept of ‘value’.What a shame.

Abstract Notes and Disentangled Aphorisms

2009-01-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

Buy my book. It's raw, it's new, it'll help me get through school. Tell a friend, share a copy.

Spare time thoughts collected and combined. The subject matter deals with the inner feelings
and thoughts of a recovering youth during the beginning of the 21st century.

Illustrations by Justine Battut - http://www.liquitexart.deviantart.com

2012 Concepts Gone Awry

2009-01-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

It has been shown that our Changing Sun is tied to our changing weather and climate patterns on earth, the sun is the forefront of energy supply on earth. These flares are tied into such a larger galactic system. The Mayan calendar suggests that on December 21st 2012 when the winter solstice begins and our solar system will align for a major interplanetary eclipse and an unpredictable synchronicistic transfer of energy and gravity will bring upon true change. Be it the end of the world, an alien invasion, a jump in evolution on the biological, technological, psychological, and spiritual scale, or simple cosmic destruction.

This has been predicted, worshipped, and prophesized in ancient cultural works such as; The I Ching, the writings of Nostrodomus, The Bible, The Book of Ra, the Mayan calendar, the Wheel of the zodiac from 6th Century Greece, and The Vedas of Indian. All of which represent mythological explanations for the humanities experience of astrological time and earthly events.

The start of the age of Aquarius revels a hidden sign, the age of Ophiuchus, the snake holder. This is the thirteenth Zodaic sign. It coincides with the 2012 alignment and is located along the dark rift of the milky way galaxy.

These cosmic activities will more likely occur during the era of 2012 with a +/- of 50 years.. Astrophysics and astronomy have a thing about their calculations and hypothesizes, they can be like any other stab at probabilities’ and predictions, there is no 100% guarantee on anything. Quantum mechanics is currently enlightening us with that piece of the cosmic puzzle.

For example quantum mechanics has been used to theorize how it might be possible for John Hutchison’s claims that utilizing energy can be done to lift cannonballs and tap into zero-point energy. These are said to not be possible because they would be breaking the rules of thermodynamics. With quantum mechanics and string theory it is possible that the rules of physics can not always truly apply. All rules can be bent. Look at what Nikola Tesla did in 1888, his polyphase systems that would transfer alternate current across vast distances was destroyed by those that profited instead by using copper wire that would cost much more than wireless stations. This wireless expression of electrical power is currently being explored for contemporary use.

UFO’s are out there. The frequency of sightings is increasing. The governments of Mexico, France, and Turkey have released information of mass sightings. When we as a species of intelligent apes acknowledge that we are not alone in the universe and share with each other the information shared, stolen, or integrated from extraterrestrial beings will we be able to save ourselves at the least, our planet with all hope the best.

How does all this tie together though is what keeps me up and has me thinking. Maybe there will be a integration of all these events, an understanding of our realm of existence. A Singularity when galactic human achievement occurs by publicly working together to survive what is a major universal event in our shared galaxy.

Global Rich List

2009-01-22T09:27:00.001-08:00

I was shown this excellent site that puts the global income of individuals into a good perspective. Global Rich List places your income in terms of the globes population.
By showing someone where they stand in the world it can have a larger impact than where they stand in their own nation. It did for me. Makes we wonder if reasons like this and blind faith in our ideology of capitalism, politics, and religious faith made Einstein denounce his nationhood and faith to become an individual of our planet Terra?

By toying around with the income input I've also seen the drastic differences that the exchange rates between nations has on one's standings within the list. 34,000 UK Pounds puts you in the top 0.9%, while 34,000 US Dollars puts you in the top 4.91%. Make those Canadian dollars and you move into the top 6.88%.

This is insight had more impact from finding it for myself then if some economic class laid it out as some abstract fact of the systems establish parameters.
I guess in the long run Thatcher didn't fuck all the kids.

Garbage about Teens

2009-01-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

The effects upon adolescent development these days seems to be moving faster and more sporadic then all previous generations. In Canada our teens are becoming more engrossed in behavior management through the school systems and a result from the expanding amount of research that has been done since the 1980s, which at that point within the research domain of psychology there was nothing in the literature.

With an increasing amalgamation of technology in the everyday lives of teens, even younger children with their robotic pets and play systems (i.e. Nintendo’s DS and their pet program Nintendogs). Their physical, social, and cognitive development is becoming more augmented with theories and plans for achieving what has been considered “normative” development into the Information Age.

This raises some questions in my mind as to whether these management systems (the Feel-Good Curriculum) that are being enacted are worthwhile as benefits or might lead to newly raised issues in the future. Of course there is the fact that various schools and municipalities apply different strategies so therefore we may end up with more variety among the next generation of emerging adults in their skill sets and aptitudes for emerging useful cognitive skills, such as abstract thinking, conceptualizing new ideas, and empathetic reasoning with limited physical experience to another.

Another interesting factor is the Secular Trend. The secular trend is the fact that adolescent growth has been occurring earlier and earlier over succeeding generations and that there are drastically more pressures and expectations of teens to excel at tasks that used to be applied only to college and university students in the past. Put simply our youth are developing quicker and earlier in their maturation then they might be able to handle properly.

I personally don’t know anything of the specifics in which this had played a role in teachers and teen counselors changing their methods, but on intuition I’ll go ahead and assume that very little has changed since Canadian funding has decrease in the educational systems across the country. There probably are those few examples of dedicated teachers who know and realize the implications of these changes and are adjusting their curriculum to better develop the potential skills and abilities of their students.

There is also the factor of steroid use and extreme pressures for youth to succeed and excel in sports. These roiding teens are being physically abused (either under their own will or the will of their peers and coaches) not only in the now but forward into their futures from the steroids long lasting effects upon their development.

All together, I am just glad that I am not a teen anymore, but jealous of their access to so many more growing opportunities to further themselves and their development with specialized methods and technologies.

The Recession is my Fault!

2009-01-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

As a student I’ve come to realize that to achieve a Bachelor Degree based solely on loans and credit I shall come out at least $100,000 in debt. This I have found across North America to be the norm. Debt ridden students are not hard to come by and even plays a role in many satirical jokes around family tables.

I’ve also found that class structure in the academic pursuit pathway is still as rampant as ever. Coming across a few good websites for how to aid those in the lower class spectrum, the Coalition for Student Loan Fairness is one that seems to provide the most information and chances for change and becoming informed on the situation and process that Canada follows in its Student Loan Programs.

Alas but what does this have to do with the recession being my fault? That insight comes from the fact presented to me from my debt collectors FAQ. After explaining how peace of mind from profession debt collection services providing services to the consumer and the credit grantors and explaining how people from all walks of life end up on their lists, they give the wonderful advice to stay calm and realize just as consumers depend on their income to survive so do credit grantors depend on their loans being paid to continue their business as a successful practice.

This I can agree upon as a state of how the economy works. Ignoring the fact that monetary funds and credit card companies fueling the problem of throwing people (like myself) access to funds that they have no real means to achieve. Keeping us in debt for years to come.

What really sparked my emotions was the last question and response which is stated as follows.

How does bad debt affect the economy?

Because businesses need to cut losses, the cost of bad debt is often deflected by raising consumer prices. Since there is a limit to how high prices can be increased before business begin losing customers, bad debt also results in business failures and job loss.

To me this implies that the backlash from my bad debt and lacking a moral will to pay off that which was foolishly given to me in the first place by the MasterCard is a contributing factor in the recent degradation of our global economy and the resulting recession. To those that have lost their jobs and businesses I apologize. Not to you individually but to the system as a whole that functions in this backwards idea that to make everything fluid and productive we need to facilitate the money lenders and allow them to raise more digital dollars.

The recession is not my fault. It’s the systems of stocks and bonds, and loans and debt that are the cause. Please don’t humor me. I may be young and brash, against the status quo, but I am not a man made of magical money. I do not have family with buckets of stored information of money made. I, like millions out there in the world, am striving to better myself and my future, at least cut me some slack on insulting my intelligence.

Neuroprosthetics and Johnny Mnemonic Potentials

2009-01-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Henry Markram, head of the Laboratory of Neural Microcircuitry has said that: “There are three fundamental obstacles to developing reliable neuroprosthetics: 1) stable interfacing of electromechanical devices with neural tissue, 2) understanding how to stimulate the neural tissue, and 3) understanding what signals to record from the neurons in order for the device to make an automatic and appropriate decision to stimulate.

It’s years ahead of Johnny Mnemonic’s hardwired hard drive. But there was something in that film that might be overlooked by some neuroscientists. The fact of an external stimulation to activate the neuroprosthetics. It’s been almost 14 years since the Ice T and Keanu Reeves teamed up to discover and save the abused dolphin.

Which is another factor that seems to be a good prospecting idea for neuroprosthetics. Start testing on similar evolutionary species to ourselves, such as apes and monkeys, or those creatures of the earth that have similar mental capacities. Think of the possibilities. An elephant with an enhanced external sensory drive that adds even more dimensions to its cognitive experience.

I know there are those that these thoughts would infuriate and cause for skepticism. And I agree. Yet the ideas are fun to play with and run a few thought experiments on. It’s what keeps me on my toes in the morning.

I am a Soft Target!

2009-01-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

Soft Target. One who follows a routine day to day and are unaware of their surroundings. According to military handbooks on terrorism and warfare it seems I should be aiming at becoming a Hard Target.

That is I should not be walking or feeding the dog along the same route or at the same time every day. I should frequent different establishments for meals. Park in different areas daily (not that hard in the West End of Vancouver). And the ultimate top off, try not to earn the reputation of always lending a hand and aiding people. "The trick to being human is to always think about yourself." Gaius Baltar

There are three basic rules to being a hard target.
1. Be Alert
2. Keep a Low Profile
3. Be Unpreictable

Basically be paranoid about everything and everyone you come into contact. Trust no one.

Who that enemy is boils down to who you believe has the urge to cause you harm. Be it a militant group in a warzone, or your own government in your own city.
Welcome to the Dodge City of Western mindsets.

Cell Phones Numbers Go Public

2009-01-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

2009 shall be full of surprises and hassles, love and pain, and like the years before it, Telemarketing calls. Cell phone numbers shall now be open ground for telemarketing calls in Canada.

You'll be on the bus and with a *vibrate*

"Hello?"
"Yes this is Johnson from the Bureau of Deli Meats and we would like to offer to you a one time deal on express delivery of all your weekly meats. This is an excellent opportunity...."

Cell phones will start to receive sales calls and you will be charged for them depending on your plan, at the worst they'll take up valuable daytime minutes.

How does one stop this from happening? Well it's going to happen regardless. Best advice is to goto Canada's National Do Not Call list, https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/, and register your number.

It takes a minute of your time and blocks your number from most telemarketing companies for five years. You can register your number on the Do Not Call List online or by calling 1-866-580-3635 or 1-888-382-1222. You must call from the number you wish to be blocked.

Protect yourself and spread the word to all your friends and family so they don't get calls that waste their time and money.