tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post3592749869716183026..comments2023-11-02T08:15:58.430-07:00Comments on Eliot Baker's Books-n-Stuff: I don't believe in ghosts--but they believe in meAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01903143010087781504noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-21676326159524465672013-10-11T00:57:20.874-07:002013-10-11T00:57:20.874-07:00Thank you for your post, and no apologies necessar...Thank you for your post, and no apologies necessary. You bring up interesting points worth discussing.<br /><br />Actually, I don’t believe imagination and rationality are opposed. They’re in lock-step. That’s because I don’t think imagination is a primarily emotional mental activity, although emotion certainly factors into the process. Imagination is drawn from the same wellspring as creativity, which is demonstrated through various studies to be a form of cognition that links specific neural networks designed for specific tasks, in order to find novel solutions. In creativity, or imagination, we’re connecting various brain regions that don’t always play nicely together (not simply the left and right sides, a model that is becoming antiquated). Scientific American Mind frequently has articles about the creative mind to this effect. <br /><br />The history of science is bursting with examples of high imagination; there are some incredible stories in addition to the great examples you cited with Einstein and Newton. But, I need to examine your statement: “imaginative musings followed by rational calculations.” I think people don’t muse first, but after rationally wrestling with a problem. When their linear logic fails to answer the problem, the imagination swoops in like a charismatic Indian chief to bring together all the warring tribes of the mind. <br /><br />Think of how some people literally dream the answers to complex questions. Here, we are in a different state of consciousness where our minds can make connections otherwise impossible when awake. We are open to receiving what some call visions (and perhaps sometimes they are). For instance, while at MIT, mathmetician John Newman dreamed that his (Beautiful Mind-famous) protégé, John Nash, explained the answer to a mathematical formulae he’d been working on. Dream-Nash was right, and Newman published it. There are a shocking number of examples of these kinds of dreams for scientsits, and I vaguely recall one of Paul McCartney’s best songs came to him in a dream. I won’t steal my own thunder from my next planned blog on dreams and dreaming by citing too many more. But there’s another level of dreaming that is harder to explain by strict rationality, and that’s Jungian archetype and symbols, and precognition and synchronicity. Jung had a dream that foretold WWII. I’ll get into that next week.<br /><br />But yes, the Last Ancient delves into the what-if of visions: what if they do come from an external source? What if these visions elevate the self into higher forms of consciousness, as alchemists transmute base materials into precious metals?<br /><br />So, the golden crow—I’d love to see one again. It wasn’t a figment of my imagination. It was a unique natural phenomena at a unique time in my life. The coincidence was incredible. I’d love for it not to have been a coincidence. I guess you could say that I remain skeptical, but open to and fascinated by the amazing and the fantastic. <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01903143010087781504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-80765016250465735862013-10-10T14:56:49.172-07:002013-10-10T14:56:49.172-07:00Thank you for your reply, and do excuse me if I pu...Thank you for your reply, and do excuse me if I push the questioning a bit further. What I’m wondering about is your opposition of rational self and emotional self. This tips the balance too far, I would argue, in favour of the rational self – because emotions are generally considered untrustworthy (which, of course, many times they are). (But not always.) Consequently, the rational self is left as the sole reliable arbiter of truth.<br /><br />If, however, we try another opposition, rationality versus imagination, we come up with a different picture. How, for instance, did Einstein work out Special Relativity and General Relativity? By imagining (a) what would it be like to ride a light beam and (b) what would it be like to fall from a house and, with no ground to interrupt the fall, to keep on falling. After the imagining (right brain stuff) came the rationality (expressing the insights in equations: left brain stuff).<br /><br />A similar process arguably took place with the alleged Newton and apple incident: imaginative musings followed by rational calculations.<br /><br />Mind you, I’ve got to admit it would be quite another matter imagining what the golden crow etc might signify, then finding any sort of rational calculations to back it up.<br /><br />Maybe ‘The Last Ancient’ will demonstrate imaginative truths in a persuasive fashion?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-25484198992687203982013-10-09T11:50:33.590-07:002013-10-09T11:50:33.590-07:00A valid question, indeed. My interpretation of &qu...A valid question, indeed. My interpretation of "knowing as a skeptic" means that my rational self is compelled by what the burden of observable and recordable evidence indicates is the most likely--or definite--cause/result/truth; as opposed to what my emotional self might better desire or feel is more correct. I can't "know" whether that golden crow was a message or a messenger from another plain. As a teenager I couldn't help but think so. Still, it can't be proven. That requires faith, at least as I understand the concept. Are my feelings towards the experience a dismissal? Perhaps. Then again, what did my neighbors think of the golden crow? What significance did it carry for them? How about the albino squirrels racing around Jamaica Pond in Boston the first time I pushed my new-born daughter through it--were those carrying a message for me, or for the other thousands of people walking along there? Or the time, two years ago, a bald eagle clutching a freshly caught trout flew close enough to touch above my head in my father's driveway; and an hour later, Air Force One and Obama flew almost close enough to touch above me while I was on the light rail tram to a Mariner's game (which we lost to the Yankees, the day Ichiro was traded into the clutches of the Yankees). We're surrounded by these wild moments. I find them fascinating. I explore their mystical/alchemical interpretation at great depth in my upcoming novel, The Last Ancient. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01903143010087781504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-13251657339077852872013-10-09T09:33:21.612-07:002013-10-09T09:33:21.612-07:00Just a question, really. What is the status of kno...Just a question, really. What is the status of knowing in the following extract: 'While my inner skeptic knows it was coincidence'? (Is there any way of knowing? dismissing, yes, but knowing..?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-49443815548183711142013-10-08T22:11:36.633-07:002013-10-08T22:11:36.633-07:00Oh man, that's the first real sinister ghost/p...Oh man, that's the first real sinister ghost/poltergeist story I've heard. Very creepy, and very good. Having been in AC, I can believe that there are some pretty disturbed souls roaming about. Do PM me your other story. Love to hear it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01903143010087781504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-44305260437934212312013-10-08T14:14:15.204-07:002013-10-08T14:14:15.204-07:00I've got a couple, Eliot.
First, when I was ...I've got a couple, Eliot. <br /><br />First, when I was a teenager, my grandfather lived with some of my mom's cousins down at the Jersey shore. One day my mom and I were visiting. I went upstairs to use the bathroom. Like a cheap horror movie, the shower curtain was drawn across the whole bathtub. I could feel the presence of someone in there, so I pulled back the curtain. I felt like something had passed through me. Creeped out, I went back downstairs and promised myself I wouldn't use the bathroom again there. A while later, we were all talking downstairs in the kitchen, when I mentioned what happened in the bathroom. My mom said she felt the same thing when she went up there. My mom's cousin chimed in -- she's a medium and she said that some old dead guy who comes to speak with her enters the house through the shower.<br /><br />My ex, who is one of the most rational, skeptical people I know, was at a party near Atlantic City when she was in high school. The conversation turned to ghosts and how the house they were staying in was rumored to be haunted. She laughed it off and went to the bathroom. The bathroom mirror was surrounded by vanity lights, and one by one, they all popped and broke. She tried getting out of the bathroom but the door was stuck. In the room where the rest of the people were, the ceiling fan turned on by itself. They all were pretty freaked out and didn't spend the night. <br /><br />I've got a third one but it's more private. If you're interested, I'll PM it to you. desertmonkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00681397345805800556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-61195390709301544352013-10-08T11:35:55.572-07:002013-10-08T11:35:55.572-07:00Thanks Rita!Thanks Rita!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01903143010087781504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-57613439681684081832013-10-08T08:03:10.869-07:002013-10-08T08:03:10.869-07:00Love the post and the stories in it. RitaLove the post and the stories in it. RitaRita Bayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14632070364222067141noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-76717293420268088132013-10-08T06:18:41.875-07:002013-10-08T06:18:41.875-07:00Beautiful story, Nikki. Thanks so much for sharing...Beautiful story, Nikki. Thanks so much for sharing. I bet others are nodding their heads to this. Once my rational-minded friends let their guard down, it's amazing how many have had some sort of telepathic experience involving a loved one, be it through a dream or a powerful feeling or a vision like the one you just shared. I never had the patience for meditation, except one time my wife dragged me to a class and my mind went blank-- I think I got into that meditation zone-- whereupon it seemed like an image was inserted into my brain. It was this vivid triangle, like an electric orange/yellow color. I wish I had a point to that story, but that's it, other than that it was a unique mental experience. Back in my research assistant days, there were two meditation studies on the same floor as our sleep study; apparently, meditation is getting more and more attention from science for its therapeutic benefits. I wonder what else has been found in meditation studies? Might be worth digging into.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01903143010087781504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7312444233492840796.post-3123775917501086252013-10-08T05:38:47.384-07:002013-10-08T05:38:47.384-07:00Deep in the meditation period of a yoga class, I s...Deep in the meditation period of a yoga class, I saw my grandfather's face, full of tension. He said nothing, just looked at me with his faded brown eyes. "It's okay, Grampa," I told him. "I love you. Go home." The tension slid away and his image faded out. Grampa was, in fact, very ill at that moment, but he recovered to tyrannize the nursing home staff for several more months, but because of distance I never saw him again. <br />I am rationally certain my vision was literally all in my head--meditation, my worry about him, the need to say goodbye. Yet I'm glad my final encounter with him was so ethereally peaceful. Nikkihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08682040969965800663noreply@blogger.com