I know, I've been neglecting the troubles in Japan. Earlier this month Japan was struck by the largest earthquake ever recorded in the region. It sent a tsunami across the Pacific, and irreparably damaged several nuclear power plants. The death toll is estimated at 18,000 the last time I heard on the radio. Officials in Japan are saying this is the worst disaster to hit the country since the end of the Second World War.
What with the ongoing "Kinetic Military Action™" the US is waging in Libya, and arming al Qaeda, and the Iranians releasing a video saying the Mahdi has come back from wherever he's been the past thousand years, and Israel has to be destroyed before the year is over so he can begin the end of days, and that Mahmoud Ahmadinajad is the only one on the planet who can see or hear him, so you better do what Ahmadinajad says, I haven't had the time to get to yet another depressing topic.
But all is not bad news! We are blessed to live in the time of Charlie Sheen and The Donald running for president. Need more proof? I bring you good tidings from Japan.
While the Japanese military was digging out bodies, 2,000 of them, one turned out to be alive. A four month old baby was found amidst the wreckage. The little girl has been returned to her family, who were also spared by the devastation.
Elsewhere (no map is provided, so place names mean nothing to me), a 70 year old woman, and her house, were harmlessly transported by the waves to a new location. A 60 year old man was also found floating on his roof ten miles out to sea. The fact that they were searching that far out is astonishing enough, let alone finding a surviver out there.
It's stuff like this that almost makes up for all the crap people are doing to screw the world.
-Dee
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Now, Blood for Oil!
Problem: The US has begun a third war, this time with Libya. We can't afford it, we have no exit strategy, and we are now arming al Qaeda!
Solution: Unleash the power of marketing to turn "war" into something sexy and techno that everyone wants!
(Runs 4 1/2 minutes)
Solution: Unleash the power of marketing to turn "war" into something sexy and techno that everyone wants!
(Runs 4 1/2 minutes)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Politically Correct BS of the Week
If you have attended an American school in the past 30 years you will know what I am talking about. One of the big lies that they try to teach kids in schools is that you can't tell if someone is a criminal just by looking at them. Criminals look just like everyone else. Well, Jeffrey M. Valla and some other folks at Cornell University have done what I've been wanting to do for years, toss that myth out to the garbage. A study they conducted has demonstrated you can tell if someone is more likely to be a criminal just by looking at them, something I've been saying for years.
Every time I saw pictures of criminals on TV I noticed they all looked alike. Every single one of them. This study has vindicated my personal experience. People cannot tell what kind of criminal they are looking at, but they can tell that the person they are looking at is a criminal of some kind. The folks who did the study even went out of their way to find pictures of criminals who looked the least criminal, to stack the deck against the hypothesis that people can tell the difference by looks alone, and still they got positive results.
Every time I saw pictures of criminals on TV I noticed they all looked alike. Every single one of them. This study has vindicated my personal experience. People cannot tell what kind of criminal they are looking at, but they can tell that the person they are looking at is a criminal of some kind. The folks who did the study even went out of their way to find pictures of criminals who looked the least criminal, to stack the deck against the hypothesis that people can tell the difference by looks alone, and still they got positive results.
The one outstanding issue, however, is that women, but not men, have trouble spotting rapists. The authors suggest this is because rapists have to look as non-threatening as possible in order to succeed in their criminal acts. They admit that this explanation is purely speculative and more study is needed (more $$$ + job security). You can read the full text of the study here (PDF).
Friday, March 25, 2011
Bi-Winning
If Charlie Sheen lived during Greek times they would have written myths about him. He's done more drugs than anyone can survive. How is this possible? He's got tiger blood and Adonis DNA. He's also bi-winning, which is the opposite of bi-polar. Bi-winning individuals experience alternating episodes of winning and winning even more.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Three Good Reasons NOT to Intervene in Libya
The United States has begun "humanitarian" intervention, with bombs, in Libya. Two pilots have been shot down. Will this lead to a war? Here are three good reasons NOT to intervene in the affairs of the Libyan civial war.
1. The United States cannot afford intervention, or another war. $170 million dollars alone spent on Tomahawk missiles, more than all the humanitarian aid to Japan. The US is in the middle of the greatest economic crisis in its history. Wouldn't it be better to keep the economy from collapsing than bombing one dictator among many?
2. Support for intervention is tenuous at best. The Arab League and African Union as well as some anti-Qaddafi groups within Libya don't want us there. China doesn't want us there. Considering the two largest holders of US foreign debt, Japan and China, are being spurned in favour of bombing one dictator among many, it seems like a wise choice to leave the Libyan civil war to its own devices.
3. US forces are spread too thin. Troops are stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, with ongoing war of a decade. The US boarder with Mexico is collapsing. Parts of Arizona and Texas are controlled by the drug cartels. If the US spreads its forces too thin it will collapse like the Romans or the Ottomans did.
Bonus 4th Reason!: There is no way out. With no clear objecties and no exit strategy, the intervention in Libya has quagmire written all over it. After two wars have gone quagmire with no exit strategies (Vietnam and Afghanistan), hasn't anyone in the government learned that a plan is needed before going to war?
1. The United States cannot afford intervention, or another war. $170 million dollars alone spent on Tomahawk missiles, more than all the humanitarian aid to Japan. The US is in the middle of the greatest economic crisis in its history. Wouldn't it be better to keep the economy from collapsing than bombing one dictator among many?
2. Support for intervention is tenuous at best. The Arab League and African Union as well as some anti-Qaddafi groups within Libya don't want us there. China doesn't want us there. Considering the two largest holders of US foreign debt, Japan and China, are being spurned in favour of bombing one dictator among many, it seems like a wise choice to leave the Libyan civil war to its own devices.
3. US forces are spread too thin. Troops are stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, with ongoing war of a decade. The US boarder with Mexico is collapsing. Parts of Arizona and Texas are controlled by the drug cartels. If the US spreads its forces too thin it will collapse like the Romans or the Ottomans did.
Bonus 4th Reason!: There is no way out. With no clear objecties and no exit strategy, the intervention in Libya has quagmire written all over it. After two wars have gone quagmire with no exit strategies (Vietnam and Afghanistan), hasn't anyone in the government learned that a plan is needed before going to war?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Origin of Oil
Leroy Fletcher Prouty, controversial retired Air Force colonel (remember Oliver Stone's film JFK? Prouty served as an adivsor on that film), presents in eight minutes why oil is not a fossil fuel.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A Brief History of Israel
You all probably have seen the most popular post here, dealing with the history of Israel and Arab leaders admitting that there are no Palestinian people, that they are really just Syrians, and they hate Israel and the Jews and that's why they want to have a Palestinian country. Here is a six minute video detailing the history of the British Mandate, Israel, and the three attempts by the Arab world to exterminate Israel and the Jews.
Friday, March 4, 2011
UFO's: An Integral Perspective
Integral artist Stuart Davis* has a new piece on UFO's. He begins thusly:
The field of UFOlogy has long been plagued with sloppy research and slippery testimony from sketchy sources. But in recent years it has transformed, reshaped by first person testimony from high caliber eyewitnesses. Hundreds of top-ranking military officials, powerful governmental figures, pilots, astronauts, and former covert operatives with secret clearance have come forward and provided video-taped testimony on their firsthand experience with UFOs. They originate from all corners of the globe, and put their names—and sometimes their lives—on the line in order to reveal what they generally describe as a tragic, calamitous cover-up.
Even a cursory survey of Leslie Kean's book, UFO's: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On The Record is a wake up call. Whatever the 5% of genuinely unexplainable UFOs are, they are no longer the province of speculation from the periphery of pseudo-science. Exemplars of reason, experts held in great esteem in their fields, are coming forward in droves to say we are really missing it. "It"being the ostensible reality that an intelligent presence of unknown origin is operating—with apparent impunity—over our military bases and soveriegn air space.
He presents five possible explanations to the wave of high-level officials coming out about the existence of the 5% of truly unidentified UFO's:
1. misidentification of terrestrial phenomena
2. top secret black projects, possibly so secret high-level officials themselves are out of the loop, or possibly deliberate misinformation
3. intra-governmental organizations/ New World Order plot
4. genuine ET's
5. top secret, reverse-engineered ET craft (2+4)
(Stu has a poll: 71% of readers say UFO's are ET in origin, 17% say they are misidentification)
He then relates this to our own lop-sided development (in the west), which focuses on the right side (exteriors) while the left side (interiors) atrophy. We must examine the UFO phenomena in the light of our own perspective and the perspectives of others and how those perspectives influence how we interpret the UFO phenomena.
While it is important to investigate the exteriors (the UFO phenomena), and find the truth there, we should use the UFO phenomena as an invitation to explore our own interiors and begin to make tangible efforts to develop spiritually, both as individuals and as groups (upper left and lower left).
Stu's view happens to congrue with my own. While explanations 1-3 certainly are going on, the 5% of truly unexplained surely must include some extraterrestrial component (4 and 5).
*Here is a video of him performing a song called "Nothing In Between." I don't have the words to describe this. You'll just have to experience it.
The field of UFOlogy has long been plagued with sloppy research and slippery testimony from sketchy sources. But in recent years it has transformed, reshaped by first person testimony from high caliber eyewitnesses. Hundreds of top-ranking military officials, powerful governmental figures, pilots, astronauts, and former covert operatives with secret clearance have come forward and provided video-taped testimony on their firsthand experience with UFOs. They originate from all corners of the globe, and put their names—and sometimes their lives—on the line in order to reveal what they generally describe as a tragic, calamitous cover-up.
Even a cursory survey of Leslie Kean's book, UFO's: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On The Record is a wake up call. Whatever the 5% of genuinely unexplainable UFOs are, they are no longer the province of speculation from the periphery of pseudo-science. Exemplars of reason, experts held in great esteem in their fields, are coming forward in droves to say we are really missing it. "It"being the ostensible reality that an intelligent presence of unknown origin is operating—with apparent impunity—over our military bases and soveriegn air space.
He presents five possible explanations to the wave of high-level officials coming out about the existence of the 5% of truly unidentified UFO's:
1. misidentification of terrestrial phenomena
2. top secret black projects, possibly so secret high-level officials themselves are out of the loop, or possibly deliberate misinformation
3. intra-governmental organizations/ New World Order plot
4. genuine ET's
5. top secret, reverse-engineered ET craft (2+4)
(Stu has a poll: 71% of readers say UFO's are ET in origin, 17% say they are misidentification)
He then relates this to our own lop-sided development (in the west), which focuses on the right side (exteriors) while the left side (interiors) atrophy. We must examine the UFO phenomena in the light of our own perspective and the perspectives of others and how those perspectives influence how we interpret the UFO phenomena.
While it is important to investigate the exteriors (the UFO phenomena), and find the truth there, we should use the UFO phenomena as an invitation to explore our own interiors and begin to make tangible efforts to develop spiritually, both as individuals and as groups (upper left and lower left).
Stu's view happens to congrue with my own. While explanations 1-3 certainly are going on, the 5% of truly unexplained surely must include some extraterrestrial component (4 and 5).
*Here is a video of him performing a song called "Nothing In Between." I don't have the words to describe this. You'll just have to experience it.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Maha Shivaratri 2011
Enough bad news for one day. Enjoy this video from the Ramayana where Rama is singing to lord Shiva.
The World Gone Mad: Addendum A
How is it that I am just now finding out about this? From the Washington Times:
The unclassified 2009 report "Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses" by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, states that "a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy."
Elements within the governments of Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, the Chinese military, and terrorist organizations like al Qaeda are suspected to be responsible for the economic collapse of 2008.
We already know a significant factor in the economic collapse was the government ignoring the clear and present danger signs with Fannie and Freddie and other banks' horrible and reckless lending. Money was pissed away as if the Dollar would remain the world's reserve currency forever. Could foreign agents have coerced the market as well, providing the extra nudge to drive the economy off a cliff?
Freeman outlines a three step process for destroying the US economy permanently:
1. A speculative run-up in oil prices that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.
2. A series of bear raids targeting U.S. financial services firms that appeared to be systematically significant (Bear Stearns, JP Morgan Chace, Lehman Brothers, etc.)
3. A potential direct economic attack on the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. dollar, such as has been discussed by China, Russia, Iran, and other nations. This will likely involve dumping Treasury bonds.
The first two have already happened. What is the likelihood of the third happening, and who, if anyone, is behind this attack, if an attack is even taking place? Well, the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and Treasury don't care. They're not going to investigate. The US economy could be permanently destroyed and the government agencies whose ostensible job is to protect us are sitting on their asses not caring! Even if there is no threat, even if there is only a small probability that this is real, there are catastrophic consequences if it is real. If something has catastrophic consequences it doesn't matter if the possibility of it happening is small, you still prepare. During the Cold War the US had developed a strategy in case Canada invaded! I think this is a little more realistic than getting invaded by Canada.
The report (PDF linked above, and Here) is 100 pages (plus 1 cover and 10 pages of references). I've only read a few pages, but you should download it and read it, as I will.
If you haven't been scared yet you are either:
*Stupid
*Naive
*Fully realized in non-dual awareness
*A Gurkha (as the British said, back when they colonized India: "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha.")
Just in case, this is from Reuters. I am not alone in saying that "madness is contagious" (well, Steven Pressfield said it first).
With the Middle East in turmoil, other authoritarian states jumpy and post-crisis economic pain prompting protest in western Europe and elsewhere, some suspect a systemic rise in worldwide unrest might just be beginning.
Instability in the already volatile oil-producing Middle East could produce a feedback loop where unrest pushes up energy prices, fuelling inflation and deepening discontent both in the region and around the world.
I came up with this as a fictional story and now it's happening! I do not like it when my apocalyptic fiction becomes reality.
Afghanistan is landlocked. The only way to get there is through Pakistan, which has seen endemic political/military troubles. If anything happens to Pakistan US forces in Afghanistan are stranded.
Israel is surrounded. The Muslim Brotherhood, who looks like a shoe-in for control of Egypt in the future, wants to arm everyone and send them on a jihad to destroy Israel. Syria, one of Israel's long-time enemies, is recieving help from Iranian warships. If anything happens to Jordan or Saudi Arabia we won't be able to help them.
Iraq still has thousands of US troops. Iraq is surrounded by Iran and Syria, enemies of the United States. Bahrain, home of the US Fifth Fleet, is falling apart, and they won't let us launch attacks against other Arab nations from their bases. Iraq looks to be surrounded too. If anything happens to Saudi Arabia, again, we're fucked.
In one month half the world caught on fire! And, it's the oil producing half, and oil makes the world go round. Oil prices are already going up, and Qadaffy (the spelling of whose name no one can agree on) hasn't even been ousted yet (he will be gone before mid-March).
I don't know what the future holds. I can only look at the facts and interpret them within my own framework of understanding. I ask that you do the same and draw your own conclusions. I pray peace prevails. I advise that you do the same.
The unclassified 2009 report "Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses" by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, states that "a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy."
Elements within the governments of Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, the Chinese military, and terrorist organizations like al Qaeda are suspected to be responsible for the economic collapse of 2008.
We already know a significant factor in the economic collapse was the government ignoring the clear and present danger signs with Fannie and Freddie and other banks' horrible and reckless lending. Money was pissed away as if the Dollar would remain the world's reserve currency forever. Could foreign agents have coerced the market as well, providing the extra nudge to drive the economy off a cliff?
Freeman outlines a three step process for destroying the US economy permanently:
1. A speculative run-up in oil prices that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.
2. A series of bear raids targeting U.S. financial services firms that appeared to be systematically significant (Bear Stearns, JP Morgan Chace, Lehman Brothers, etc.)
3. A potential direct economic attack on the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. dollar, such as has been discussed by China, Russia, Iran, and other nations. This will likely involve dumping Treasury bonds.
The first two have already happened. What is the likelihood of the third happening, and who, if anyone, is behind this attack, if an attack is even taking place? Well, the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and Treasury don't care. They're not going to investigate. The US economy could be permanently destroyed and the government agencies whose ostensible job is to protect us are sitting on their asses not caring! Even if there is no threat, even if there is only a small probability that this is real, there are catastrophic consequences if it is real. If something has catastrophic consequences it doesn't matter if the possibility of it happening is small, you still prepare. During the Cold War the US had developed a strategy in case Canada invaded! I think this is a little more realistic than getting invaded by Canada.
The report (PDF linked above, and Here) is 100 pages (plus 1 cover and 10 pages of references). I've only read a few pages, but you should download it and read it, as I will.
If you haven't been scared yet you are either:
*Stupid
*Naive
*Fully realized in non-dual awareness
*A Gurkha (as the British said, back when they colonized India: "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha.")
Just in case, this is from Reuters. I am not alone in saying that "madness is contagious" (well, Steven Pressfield said it first).
With the Middle East in turmoil, other authoritarian states jumpy and post-crisis economic pain prompting protest in western Europe and elsewhere, some suspect a systemic rise in worldwide unrest might just be beginning.
Instability in the already volatile oil-producing Middle East could produce a feedback loop where unrest pushes up energy prices, fuelling inflation and deepening discontent both in the region and around the world.
I came up with this as a fictional story and now it's happening! I do not like it when my apocalyptic fiction becomes reality.
Afghanistan is landlocked. The only way to get there is through Pakistan, which has seen endemic political/military troubles. If anything happens to Pakistan US forces in Afghanistan are stranded.
Israel is surrounded. The Muslim Brotherhood, who looks like a shoe-in for control of Egypt in the future, wants to arm everyone and send them on a jihad to destroy Israel. Syria, one of Israel's long-time enemies, is recieving help from Iranian warships. If anything happens to Jordan or Saudi Arabia we won't be able to help them.
Iraq still has thousands of US troops. Iraq is surrounded by Iran and Syria, enemies of the United States. Bahrain, home of the US Fifth Fleet, is falling apart, and they won't let us launch attacks against other Arab nations from their bases. Iraq looks to be surrounded too. If anything happens to Saudi Arabia, again, we're fucked.
In one month half the world caught on fire! And, it's the oil producing half, and oil makes the world go round. Oil prices are already going up, and Qadaffy (the spelling of whose name no one can agree on) hasn't even been ousted yet (he will be gone before mid-March).
I don't know what the future holds. I can only look at the facts and interpret them within my own framework of understanding. I ask that you do the same and draw your own conclusions. I pray peace prevails. I advise that you do the same.
The Fluoride Deception
British journalist Christopher Bryson explores the topic of water flouridation, and how a highly toxic industrial waste got into the drinking water of most Americans.
Flouride helps teeth when applied topically, not ingested. This is why your toothpaste has a warning lable telling you not to swallow it. Once in the body and not on the teeth, flouride destroys bones and leads to a number of other health problems.
Runs aprox. 30 minutes.
Flouride helps teeth when applied topically, not ingested. This is why your toothpaste has a warning lable telling you not to swallow it. Once in the body and not on the teeth, flouride destroys bones and leads to a number of other health problems.
Runs aprox. 30 minutes.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Dreaming of Genesis
No, not that Genesis.
I was (still am) watching a debate regarding Genesis, and whether or not the six yom mentioned are six 24-hour days or six periods of unspecified duration. You may remember I posted a short audio clip of a talk DOD cryptographer Harold Gans did regarding Kabbalah and the age of the universe. He tells of medieval Kabbalists who calculated the age of the universe using scripture to 12.7 billion years. I did some thinking and came up with a way to defend the opposing view, that the six yom were six 24-hour days. As a purely philosophical exercise, I can explain how God could create the universe in six 24-hour days, or even in six seconds, and it's easy and doesn't rely on anything any of us are not already aware of and experienced with. I'm not saying this happened, or didn't happen, and you can take from it what you like. A fair warning though, this does go into detail of my personal life and research, so it is likely very boring.
From about 2003 to 2009 I dilligently recorded my dreams. I have moved on to only recording particularly important dreams because the process takes up too much time (recording one night's worth of dreams in detail actually takes an hour or more), and generates too much stuff with nowhere to put it all (large, heavy stacks of papers and notebooks filled cover to cover). I have generated a lot of data and, for a time, tried working out the physics, geography, history, and sociology of the, I have determined with fair accuracy, five different worlds I have visited in my dreams (including at least three different languages). After all this I can say that the different dream worlds I have encountered are very consistent and not because they mirror my waking life in any but the most minor of details. If you are curious, there are some details below (you can skip them if you like).
The process of transitioning from waking to dreaming can take anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour. Most of the time this transition period is forgotton. In general, what happens is that, slowly, seemingly disparate and random elements will come together to form a concrete world that is otherwise completely indistinguishable from the world experienced while awake in terms of internal consistency and what could be described as the "feeling of realness." Dreamers may notice that the dream world is inconsistent with the waking world, in which case they will have a lucid or pellucid dream (a lucid dream where the dreamer decides to watch the normal flow of the dream unfold with no desire to exercise the ability to change anything, as in a normal lucid dream). The phenomena of lucid dreaming does not mean that the dream world(s) itself is not internally consistent over the course of several dreams/years. The ability of lucid dreaming could be considered as the ability to notice the change from one world with one set of rules to another world with a different set of rules, not that rules themselves cease to apply just because the world encountered is within a dream.
I tend to experience one lucid or pellucid dream every month, or about once every 180 dreams, assuming an average of six dreams/night. I tend to be able to remember no more than four to six dreams per night, although I do not discount the possibility of more dreams that are not remembered. My ability to change the dream world while lucid has remained consistent over the years, e.g., I can fly up to certain speeds/altitudes; I can move faster only by slowing down everyone else, not speeding myself up. This implies that the dream world is structured and obeys rules not unlike the rules of the waking world uncovered by science.
If you have managed to get through all that you have probably figured out my argument, but if not, I will restructure everything so it becomes more clear.
A dream world can have incredibly detailed structure and rules, a detailed history, a full compliment of sensory perceptions, geography, climate, vegitation, animals, cities, people, and remain completely consistent over years, and yet it is all created every night in under 30 minutes, on average. Relationships can pick up from where they left off several dreams ago, people encountered in dreams can recall memories of events that happened in another dream several years ago (there is a consistent history, recreated every night). A consistent and "real feeling" world with thousands if not millions of years of history can be created in minutes, and is created in minutes, every single night. Most people don't even question the processes involved, they just take as given the fact that this can happen and is completely normal.
Someone might counter: yes, but it's just one person dreaming. While awake many different people experience the same world and can confirm their experience of the world with others. This confirmation of experience is the basis of science (experimental results must be confirmed by multiple experimenters, usually; it's a simplification but it works.).
To which I reply, yes and no. Yes, people while awake can confirm their own subjective experiences with others to get a sense of what the objective world is like, out there, but not really. There is no way, even in theory, to know whether or not those other people with whom we confirm our experiences of the world with actually exist because we only have our subjective experience of them as data. I'm not saying there aren't other people, but we can never prove there are other people, not in any absolute manner. Also, if confirmation of experiences with others is the standard of what is real or not, what is or is not reality becomes a consensus of subjective experiences. If that is the case, we can look to people who have had shared, or mutual, dreams, in which two or more people have encountered one another while dreaming, and describe their encounter afterwards, while awake, with high degree of concordance. If I recall correctly (sorry, I don't have any references), there has been at least one study where people sharing dreams displayed brain wave synchronization, which can be used as a physical correlate, adding evidence to the reality of mutual dreaming (this has been demonstrated in telepathy experiments; I'm not sure if it has been done with dreaming but I think it has; if I'm wrong I'll gladly admit it.).
So what does this mean? If we can create a consistent, "real feeling" world every night in under 30 minutes, where seemingly physical laws and world histories remain constant over several years, and have multiple people report upon waking encountering one another in the same world while asleep, we have everything needed to describe the creation of a world exactly like the physical world in terms of phenomenology, and can maintain the existence of multiple, independent minds (not having to resort to solipsism). If every person creates a world just like the physical world every night in under 30 minutes, it is entirely possible for God to do the same in six 24-hour days, or any amount of time for that matter.
After presenting the above exercise in the debate I was told that my scenario is similar to the plot of the film Inception, to which I replied that I have not seen, nor do I plan on seeing the film. For what it's worth, if you think my scenario is similar to the plot of Inception (I don't know if it is or not), and that helps you understand what I am trying to say, then that is very good.
Dream Details (See Above)
Events from one dream may be referenced in another dream years later by the same dream people (e.g. a little girl who was kidnapped in one dream was eventually returned several years later). I held the same dream job for three years (it was a political positiong). Dream countries remain enemies or allies over several years (Germany and Persia are allies, and, until recently, they have been in a long standing cold war with the United States), and dream governments remain consistent (the Mongols have run China since my first visit to my last, over several years). Dream people usually don't die, regardless of what injury they sustain, until I or someone else tells them they're dead. I've had two cars, a red one and a blue one, have been married to the same person since 2005 and have the same two children.
At least three senses are present in all dreams (there rarely is anything to taste or smell, so I don't know if these senses disappear or just remain unstimulated, although food never tastes like it's waking analogue), and I have experienced at least two extra senses (seismic sensing, like graboids have, I guess (good for "looking" through walls and around corners) and something called "extraordinary knowing," the specifics of which cannot be explained anymore than any of the five normal senses can be explained in terms of the others).
More frequently than I assume is normal, elements of my dreams will follow me into waking life. This usually happens with sounds, especially music, that I can still hear, often for several minutes after waking up, but sometimes smells and (seemingly) solid objects. I have woken up to find a model house floating in front of my face and a truck speeding toward me that slowly vanished the closer it got, as well as numerous others.
There can be incredible deviation from the flow of time experienced while awake. One dream I had covered over 30 years of time all within a single night.
I was (still am) watching a debate regarding Genesis, and whether or not the six yom mentioned are six 24-hour days or six periods of unspecified duration. You may remember I posted a short audio clip of a talk DOD cryptographer Harold Gans did regarding Kabbalah and the age of the universe. He tells of medieval Kabbalists who calculated the age of the universe using scripture to 12.7 billion years. I did some thinking and came up with a way to defend the opposing view, that the six yom were six 24-hour days. As a purely philosophical exercise, I can explain how God could create the universe in six 24-hour days, or even in six seconds, and it's easy and doesn't rely on anything any of us are not already aware of and experienced with. I'm not saying this happened, or didn't happen, and you can take from it what you like. A fair warning though, this does go into detail of my personal life and research, so it is likely very boring.
From about 2003 to 2009 I dilligently recorded my dreams. I have moved on to only recording particularly important dreams because the process takes up too much time (recording one night's worth of dreams in detail actually takes an hour or more), and generates too much stuff with nowhere to put it all (large, heavy stacks of papers and notebooks filled cover to cover). I have generated a lot of data and, for a time, tried working out the physics, geography, history, and sociology of the, I have determined with fair accuracy, five different worlds I have visited in my dreams (including at least three different languages). After all this I can say that the different dream worlds I have encountered are very consistent and not because they mirror my waking life in any but the most minor of details. If you are curious, there are some details below (you can skip them if you like).
The process of transitioning from waking to dreaming can take anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour. Most of the time this transition period is forgotton. In general, what happens is that, slowly, seemingly disparate and random elements will come together to form a concrete world that is otherwise completely indistinguishable from the world experienced while awake in terms of internal consistency and what could be described as the "feeling of realness." Dreamers may notice that the dream world is inconsistent with the waking world, in which case they will have a lucid or pellucid dream (a lucid dream where the dreamer decides to watch the normal flow of the dream unfold with no desire to exercise the ability to change anything, as in a normal lucid dream). The phenomena of lucid dreaming does not mean that the dream world(s) itself is not internally consistent over the course of several dreams/years. The ability of lucid dreaming could be considered as the ability to notice the change from one world with one set of rules to another world with a different set of rules, not that rules themselves cease to apply just because the world encountered is within a dream.
I tend to experience one lucid or pellucid dream every month, or about once every 180 dreams, assuming an average of six dreams/night. I tend to be able to remember no more than four to six dreams per night, although I do not discount the possibility of more dreams that are not remembered. My ability to change the dream world while lucid has remained consistent over the years, e.g., I can fly up to certain speeds/altitudes; I can move faster only by slowing down everyone else, not speeding myself up. This implies that the dream world is structured and obeys rules not unlike the rules of the waking world uncovered by science.
If you have managed to get through all that you have probably figured out my argument, but if not, I will restructure everything so it becomes more clear.
A dream world can have incredibly detailed structure and rules, a detailed history, a full compliment of sensory perceptions, geography, climate, vegitation, animals, cities, people, and remain completely consistent over years, and yet it is all created every night in under 30 minutes, on average. Relationships can pick up from where they left off several dreams ago, people encountered in dreams can recall memories of events that happened in another dream several years ago (there is a consistent history, recreated every night). A consistent and "real feeling" world with thousands if not millions of years of history can be created in minutes, and is created in minutes, every single night. Most people don't even question the processes involved, they just take as given the fact that this can happen and is completely normal.
Someone might counter: yes, but it's just one person dreaming. While awake many different people experience the same world and can confirm their experience of the world with others. This confirmation of experience is the basis of science (experimental results must be confirmed by multiple experimenters, usually; it's a simplification but it works.).
To which I reply, yes and no. Yes, people while awake can confirm their own subjective experiences with others to get a sense of what the objective world is like, out there, but not really. There is no way, even in theory, to know whether or not those other people with whom we confirm our experiences of the world with actually exist because we only have our subjective experience of them as data. I'm not saying there aren't other people, but we can never prove there are other people, not in any absolute manner. Also, if confirmation of experiences with others is the standard of what is real or not, what is or is not reality becomes a consensus of subjective experiences. If that is the case, we can look to people who have had shared, or mutual, dreams, in which two or more people have encountered one another while dreaming, and describe their encounter afterwards, while awake, with high degree of concordance. If I recall correctly (sorry, I don't have any references), there has been at least one study where people sharing dreams displayed brain wave synchronization, which can be used as a physical correlate, adding evidence to the reality of mutual dreaming (this has been demonstrated in telepathy experiments; I'm not sure if it has been done with dreaming but I think it has; if I'm wrong I'll gladly admit it.).
So what does this mean? If we can create a consistent, "real feeling" world every night in under 30 minutes, where seemingly physical laws and world histories remain constant over several years, and have multiple people report upon waking encountering one another in the same world while asleep, we have everything needed to describe the creation of a world exactly like the physical world in terms of phenomenology, and can maintain the existence of multiple, independent minds (not having to resort to solipsism). If every person creates a world just like the physical world every night in under 30 minutes, it is entirely possible for God to do the same in six 24-hour days, or any amount of time for that matter.
After presenting the above exercise in the debate I was told that my scenario is similar to the plot of the film Inception, to which I replied that I have not seen, nor do I plan on seeing the film. For what it's worth, if you think my scenario is similar to the plot of Inception (I don't know if it is or not), and that helps you understand what I am trying to say, then that is very good.
Dream Details (See Above)
Events from one dream may be referenced in another dream years later by the same dream people (e.g. a little girl who was kidnapped in one dream was eventually returned several years later). I held the same dream job for three years (it was a political positiong). Dream countries remain enemies or allies over several years (Germany and Persia are allies, and, until recently, they have been in a long standing cold war with the United States), and dream governments remain consistent (the Mongols have run China since my first visit to my last, over several years). Dream people usually don't die, regardless of what injury they sustain, until I or someone else tells them they're dead. I've had two cars, a red one and a blue one, have been married to the same person since 2005 and have the same two children.
At least three senses are present in all dreams (there rarely is anything to taste or smell, so I don't know if these senses disappear or just remain unstimulated, although food never tastes like it's waking analogue), and I have experienced at least two extra senses (seismic sensing, like graboids have, I guess (good for "looking" through walls and around corners) and something called "extraordinary knowing," the specifics of which cannot be explained anymore than any of the five normal senses can be explained in terms of the others).
More frequently than I assume is normal, elements of my dreams will follow me into waking life. This usually happens with sounds, especially music, that I can still hear, often for several minutes after waking up, but sometimes smells and (seemingly) solid objects. I have woken up to find a model house floating in front of my face and a truck speeding toward me that slowly vanished the closer it got, as well as numerous others.
There can be incredible deviation from the flow of time experienced while awake. One dream I had covered over 30 years of time all within a single night.
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