You
were checking your email and Doug sent you this comment on the above article. Add
and post. - Amorella
** **
Dick, This is extremely
interesting and makes the world of reality even stranger. To me this is a
fundamental breakthrough and suggests that we are going to see some more
amazing discoveries. For example if you can separate an electron from its spin,
you could have as many electrons in the same energy state as you wish.
Amazed
Doug
** **
You want to include in Blake’s last lines in book one, “The thought,
‘reality is a very strange animal,’ he keeps to himself.” – Amorella
0859 hours. I don’t know if animal is the right word, perhaps it is too
limiting.
You could substitute ‘being’. – Amorella
Yes. Being is better.
I agree because ‘being’ allows for something else again. Later dude.
Amorella
You
are at Pine Hill Lakes Park and having taken your shorter walk you are waiting
on Carol to finish her longer one. – Amorella
1018 hours. I walked on the nearer east side of the major lake. I sat
for a while in the process. Leg muscles hurt because I was compensating for not
having my cane for balance safety. Lots of muscle twitching which is a bit
uncomfortable but they were attempting to keep my balance over earth which is not
always so smooth as asphalt. I suppose I walked about twenty minutes. I thought
my cane was in this car but both of them are in the other because I thought we
were going to Florida a couple of weeks ago. When we get home I will go over
the eMS one more time before resubmitting. I can easily picture the mind being
in two places at once because it is always attempting subconsciously to
anticipate what might happen next.
I doubt that is true, boy. Perhaps in an unsecure environment, but you,
as a creature of habit, do not anticipate much. – Amorella
You
stopped to buy a spray for the front crab apple (cider apple fungus) and now
are at Kroger’s for essentials, milk, bananas and a bakery baked multigrain
bread loaf. It is almost lunchtime so it is a wait and see situation. You have
not had the time to work on the eMS but you are planning to turn it in to
BookBaby today.
Early
afternoon. You have resubmitted your eMS to BookBaby and should receive
notification of such. – Amorella
1350 hours. I had made some changes I hope they are acceptable.
What is done is done, boy. Relax, soon we will return to work on book
two. Give BookBaby time to do what they do. You might post the Intro and first
chapter to show how it has been somewhat modified. – Amorella
1355 hours. Here is
the ebook Intro and first chapter as of the present:
***
All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be copied by
any information storage retrieval system without the email permission of the
author.
GREAT MERLYN’S GHOST: ONE
An Encounter
In Mind
By Richard H.
Orndorff
Copyright ©
2001-2014 by Richard H. Orndorff
Dedication
This
book is dedicated four-fold; one, to my friends; two, to my many former
students; three, to my many colleagues with whom I taught for thirty-seven
years, 1966-2003; and; four, this book is dedicated to the memory of one of my
few dear ‘special’ friends Thomas Robert Pringle. We were kindred spirits,
twin-minded writing allies from Westerville High School and our days at Otterbein
University where we were both members of the English Honorary, Quiz & Quill.
We were as writing twins in real life and we are fictionalized twin brothers in
these Merlyn fictions.
Many
of the legendary historical names, historical settings; the romantic and
neoclassical ideologies; and the scientific concepts and theoretical
plausibility’s entertained among these margins can be found throughout Google
and Wikipedia.
I thank
my life partner Carol, daughter Kim and son-in-law, Paul for their diligence
and patience. I also thank specific friends, initial readers of my original Merlyn’s
Mind trilogy: Angie; Bob and Patti; Cathy and Tod; Craig and Alta; Fritz;
Gary; Jeanne and Jim; Laney; my Aunt Patsy and Uncle Ernie for their
observations and helpful comments.
Also, a
special thank you to my two living Muses who know who they are; and to my
theoretical physics advisor my lifelong friend John Douglas Goss, PhD. Physics
with whom I have discussed the scientific plausibility’s presented in this
edition; and, also to his personable wife, Nancy who has provided comments and
suggestions along the way.
During
these last twenty-six years Amorella has continually collaborated with my
writing projects. Since 2007 Amorella and I have been writing working
notes/journal at www.encountersinmind@blogspot.com. Feel free to scan if your
curiosity is piqued.
My
original objective twenty-six years ago was to write to intellectually
stimulate and entertain my heart, mind and imagination. Now it is time to share
these cerebral experiences to interested readers.
Richard H.
Orndorff, Summer 2014
...
This
is Amorella, Richard’s inner guide and collaborator. This work is a fiction but
the words are as honest as if the author were swearing. What makes this truly a
ghost story is that it is being set down as if an Angel were asking Richard,
who is among the recent Dead, to tell his story. I take the part of the Angel.
Richard is his ghost, his human spirit. The words come from where they would
come from if he were physically dead and is left only with heart, soul, mind
and memory. Richard decides to take Merlyn’s role and to show who he is by his
reason, memory, imagination and dreams. Dead, he looks directly through the
Angel (myself) saying, “What else is a dead person but memories and dreams? I’d
rather begin with my dreams while they are still fresh.”
If
you like you can pretend to be an Angel like me and listen along for the
authenticity. One day perhaps you will be telling your own memories and dreams
to an Angel too. You know your memories, but what will your dreams be?
...
ONE
Slavery
Merlyn has a little saying:
Ring-a-ring
o'rosies
A
pocket full of posies
"A-tishoo!
A-tishoo!"
We
all fall down!
We
rise from the clay
On
our judgment day.
The Dead 1
This
is Merlyn. The date is 15 December 2009. I have been entangled between the
Living and the Dead, since Orndorff’s third book Merlyn’s Mind was
published in May 2008. Your twenty-first century Earth is not the Earth I left
in the seventh century. This for me is a quantum entanglement within heart and
soul and mind.
This
is Merlyn's Supervisor and through
no fault of my own I am entangled also. Merlyn resorts to a billiard table mind
with six standard pockets but he cannot know which is the pocket to the heart
and which is the pocket to the soul in the table or elsewhere. No one knows how
or why the secret tunneling exists to heart and to soul. Glevema is another
nearby spiritual entity in "The Dead" segments. Being the ancestral
mother of all living human beings, Glevema speaks to the many Dead, and in here
her voice may be heard through the ancient antennae-like spine living humans
have but rarely use for such a listening purpose.
“Merlyn,”
says Glevema, “you are indeed knotted as a belly button between me and our
descendants."
Merlyn
felt the smoothly rolling and solid black mother in 8 ball on his tabled mind
whisper, 'Life is the spirit’s armor.' The balled concept invisibly
black 8 moves on across his green felted table to strike at the bumper boundary
of Merlyn's soul-pocket, spin, then run the green only to fall into Merlyn's
heart-side pocket where Glevema rolls unceremoniously into darkness.
'Mother
vanishes below and I am sick at heart,' pops roundly yellow onto Merlyn’s mind
table as a now cautionary yellow 1 ball stopping at near the center of the
table.
Mother
of the eight ball reappears from near left pocket and rolls to a set on the
white cue mark. "Merlyn," commented Mother in slight irritation,
"it is confusing for me to be so mind-placed on your thinking table."
Merlyn’s
quiet smirk rose in a burnt orange 5 ball near the far side pocket in open
confrontation.
Mother
reappears from the side pocket catching the intended smile. Resting marked and
cued. She comments, "You have been on Earth for almost three years and are
still adjusting to the twenty-first century."
The
reality shocks Merlyn's mind into a full table of sixteen scattering balls and
he finds himself sitting instead on his favorite large piece of tabled granite,
a slab resting in the ever adjusting meadow-of-his-mind. He finds himself
suddenly staring at a petite and beautiful womanly spirit with the darkest of
eyes. Her long curly black hair swirls over her magically feminine arms and
fingers and legs and toes. Mother appears as he secretly endearingly imagines —
a legendary Celtic faery without wings or wand. Such are the distractions that
come from the depths that coil on the divide of the Living and the Dead.
Merlyn
queries, "Are you our once original ancestral Mother, Glevema, the
granddaughter of Panagiotakis the Shaman, or are you her later ancient Greek
look-alike twin, Sophia?” he paused, “Are you Sophia the Greek during the time
of the First Rebellion in HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither? Or are you something else,
a shape shifter?”
Mother
replies, “I am Glevema, Merlyn. I am your ancestral Mother of the Dead
and all those presently living within Earth’s boundary." She stands slim,
dark skinned and royal at her former living height of five full feet at less
than ninety pounds. ”Now, you see me as I am.”
Merlyn
bows slightly in the humility and whispers, "m'Lady."
Amused,
Glevema asks, "When did you last see Sophia?"
Merlyn
responds, "She was in charge of constructing a bridge across the River
Styx." Seemingly this event was only hours ago, realized Merlyn,
that I was delivered to the presence of Sophia’s spirit, to witnessed the
beginning of the Rebellion of the first fully conscious ten-thousand human
spirits in Elysium, the Place of the Greek Dead. The first revolution of the
Dead happened during the earth time of the great Greek storyteller, Homer, who
lived in the ninth century BCE.
A
brief and passing thought encompassed itself and rotated slowly into the shape
of a solid green 6 ball to the center billiard table . . . 'Wait,' thinks Merlyn, 'Today is a
present earth date. I am a fully engaged human soul entrapped within a living
human mind and body of Richard Greystone who is stuck not so solidly in the
once familiar world of three-dimensional physics.
...
The Brothers 1
Robert
Greystone sits down at his desk giving a glance to his younger brother and
asked, “Richie, what the world are you talking about?”
Richard
Greystone continues his spiel, “The brain and the mind are separate entities.
As such it is possible to be in two places at once."
“And,
who is it that writes these books for you?”
“My
imaginary Captain Lamar brings me slave stories on his ferry across the Ohio
River in my head. Lamar is my writing persona.”
“Right.
Lamar’s small ferry travels from Mason County, Kentucky to Ripley, Ohio in your
head.
“You
are being too literal, Robbie. Captain Lamar follows the famous route of the
historic Underground Railroad in my head. The words travel through the
underground in my head.”
“Richie,
why conjure up such a literary devise? You don’t do this when you write
poetry.”
“The
underground in my head surpasses the cultural slavery too long held in modern
times.”
Robert
quips, “We are all cultural slaves, Dickie. This is the way the world is, this
is the way the world works." Society is not slavery, he thought, it is the
way things get done. How else would things get done? “Why don’t you sit down
and quite pacing.”
Richard
sat in the only available chair facing his brother behind the desk. “My stories
are corded in the spine first then to the brain and then on to the mind,"
responded Richard, “from concept through word order and grammar – that’s
Captain Lamar’s underground.” Secret words come from secret places, thought
Richard. I know I am right.
“Why
don’t you stick to writing the poetry?”
Richard’s
eyes narrowed, “Why? You are better poet.”
Robert
smiles, “True. I am.”
“Your
poetry is clear and concise with no nonsense.”
Robert
expresses his amusement with the ‘yes, of course’ chuckle he knew his brother
hated. He remarked, “That’s
because my brain and my mind are in the same place. I don’t have an imaginary
old Captain Leo and his whimsical ferry, Johnny Sprout, creating me
poems hot from the northern hills of the Kentucky my mind.”
“It’s
Jonathan Sprout not Johnny,” grumbles Richard, “Captain Lamar just delivers
the stories to me, Rob.
“Johnny
Sprout the musician. It’s all in your head, Richie.”
A
spot of anger rose, “Of course it’s in my head. I know where it’s from, Robert,
but the mind is not the brain.”
“Is
this what floats your boat, Dickie? I mean we’re retired, you should know
better. ” Richard
continues his verbiage, “Neurologists argue on the definition of mind. Here’s
the first revised Merlyn chapter, read it over.”
“Why
didn’t your grand Captain Leo deliver your final Merlyn books the first time
around? Why are you now redoing the works?
Richard
truthfully responds, “It’s Lamar not Leo, Robbie;” somberly he adds, “I have a
better understanding of Merlyn’s circumstance today.” We are all slaves,
thought Richard, but the Dead aren’t slaves to anyone.
Robert
reckons, I know where this is from, then he drew the mirror of a waggish smile,
“Do you remember when we first went to Ripley to see the Underground Railroad?”
Richard
sits drumming his fingers on the soft chair arms, “Sure, I was about eight.
Grandma and Grandpa took and showed us where John Rankin lived, the setting in
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Richard chuckles, “I thought there was going to be
a real railroad.”
Rob
softens, “So your stories float up from the underground railroad in your head.”
“Look
Robbie, people still want freedom from slavery,” comments Richard but he dared
not say it without further consideration from the Captain.
“We
live in America. We have freedom,” says Robert. “You liberal thinkers are all
alike.”
Richard
retorts, “This is not about politics, Robbie. God, don’t you ever get away from
politics?” You are an old fart just like always, a conservative cardio surgeon,
once and always. He fusses up, “I hate politics and religion too, what’s the
goddamn difference?”
Seeing
a win on the horizon, Robert taunts with reasonableness and control, “Too many
years being slave mastering to your students has gotten to you, Prof Dickie.”
“I
wasn’t a slave master. I never had a student do anything I hadn’t done myself.”
“The
way I remember it, you enjoyed whipping the college freshman in your expository
writing classes every year for thirty five years, man."
Richard
scoffs, “Bull,” but remembers when his students told him that some called his
class Suppository Writing 101. One student had even told him in private that
the few who failed the class called him, Professor Dick. What humor, he
surmises. I heard wonderful college humor interspersed with many fun years of
teaching; how I miss the classroom.
Robert
skims the first half page of manuscript in the nondescript blue folder and
said, “Is this a final draft?”
“It
is the final, one chapter at a time.”
“I’ll
read it,” says Robert abruptly, but who's to say this will be any better than
your first self published attempt?"
“You
are,” smarts Richard. “Surely, you, the significant poet, can understand how
novel writing is.” Wrong word choice, he realizes.
Resetting his tone
Rob comments, “I don’t know why you can’t just stick with poetry. We could
publish a good book of poems together. This is what we were going to do when we
retired, write books of poetry together and have them published.”
“It appears golf is
more important than getting any of “The Brothers Poetry” published.”
“A different
vocation. I have room for both. I have been working on a couple poems.”
Richard smiles nonchalantly, “Balls and
words both cut and slice.”
Robert
looks over his glasses after a quick skim of the chapter. “There are four segments
in each chapter? Why? You had three segments.”
"Old Merlyn
is dreaming four stories simultaneously, one with the Dead, one in the present,
one in the past, and one in the future. The Dead dream in a verb tense
disorientation,” declared Richard with an air of unconscious authority.
Rob
smiles, “Where’s more of “The Brothers” segment?”
"Read
what you have, carefully please. I'll get it to you. I'm reworking,” states
Richard who left Robert to read his draft more closely while he headed downstairs
to see Cyndi and Connie. Of all things, he fancied while traveling the stairs,
here we are, two at-odds, lone wolf identical twin brothers, each married to
the most compatible and popular of sisters, Connie and Cyndi Bleacher who were
born a year apart but who are otherwise almost identical twins themselves. What
were we thinking?
...
Grandma’s Story 1
This
is Grandma Earth. I show selected examples of stories of human spirits, ghost
stories going back almost eighteen thousand years in the direct genetic lines
of the two Greystone and Bleacher families. The human spirits in these stories
are connected to some of you readers also. That is both the lighter and the
darker humor resting in the margins. Homo sapiens come onto the earth whole and
a selection of that whole, the spirit, survives, at least in here, whether one
likes it or not — just like when being born. The species provided the ancestors
of Robert and Richard and their chosen life partners Connie and Cyndi. These
stories are plucked from their genes, you see. Human beings are haunted.
Grandma’s
old dark eyes glance off the page to view the reader, with clarity she says,
“You forget your ancestors, and you forget what you are, don’t you
think? I have a long ago story for you, remarks Grandma. This dead man is still
stuck.
“It is dawn and my
shoulders shiver. This is the way it is. I hear the crickets and other small
creatures around the swamp. I am in a hole on a wall and there is no way out.
This is the way it is. I am stuck. Let me out. My fingers are cold to ice. It
is Winter in Spring. The birds sing. I am no bird. It is cold, and I am ice
forming on the river. I am floating and cold but I am not the river. I am the
common ground frozen,” asserts the dead man.
He turns to better
face his audience. “I had a dream last night, and it was a whopper. The dream
was about people who live out among the stars, and how it is that they are
stuck too, like I am. I remember my own cold dawn. I am almost eighteen
thousand years old by Earth’s gauge, and I am stuck flat in the ice near a
surrounding the pond of stars. I am the first wizard and though now solid I
still dance.”
Much
later in the time of the world, the first shaman, Panagiotakis, alive on Earth
also looks to his audience and in a dancing memory points to a not so bright,
and seemingly solid northern star in the night and reveals from an
unconsciously driven genetic memory, “We are from there,” then he points to the
soil beneath his feet, “to here.” No one who saw this shaman point and speak
those simple words slept well that night.
One
of those attentive listeners is Glevema, Panagiotakis’ granddaughter. She
tosses and turns in the darkness and a question unexpectedly brightened her
mind, ‘How can we be here and there at the same time?’
Later
in life, she died and found herself waiting for members of her tribe to join
her once they died and discovered they did not die in consciousness. People had
become respecting of the Dead by the time of Panagiotakis and his granddaughter
Glevema. People had begun burying the Dead with rites and passages to
accommodate the living and the dead at the same time. These few living had made
a conscious decision to be in two places at once, to be with their living
friends and to be with the memories of their dead friends. Glevema becomes the
first human consciousness-in-spirit to enter a Place of the Dead because she
accepts her immediate spiritual condition.
.
Glevema
knows Grandma Earth with her white teeth gleaning as a white cloud usually
unsoiled behind wordy shadows. Grandma stares out at her listener thinking, the
living and dead passing as wordy shadows on the whitest of walls. “Child,” she
says, “I’m gonna sit on this here stump and hope it won’t stain my pretty blue
and white dress floating along in a gentle breeze.” Grandma Earth sits down and
expounds, “You may not like it but
I am your Nature inside and out. This kerchief on my head ain’t nothin'
but the stars and the Beyond.”
Grandma
glances up into this dark sky and continues, “I got me this chant to take us
from the Dead and the past to Merlyn’s dream story future set. I am the heart
on which shamans dance. Nobody dances alone. Most everyone has a love to dance
with and Merlyn’s no exception. He dances with Vivian.
From these two
ancient hearts by soul made one
Show these
stories where passions are begun.
Our well-known
druid and druidess will do,
They are the
same, human spirits that make up you.
In a timeless
corridor where musing memories rightly tie
Our Vivian and
Merlyn do consciously lie.
From anecdote
and Grandma's tooth-filled gums
Our past shaped
narrative to a future dream story comes.
.
I
did not know I was in a dream, responds Glevema.
...
Diplomatic Pouch 1
Pyl
Williams-Burroughs sits next to her brother and pilot, while they await
departure instructions from Detroit to Burke Lakefront in Cleveland. Pyl turns
excitedly, "Justine, what'd you think of this year’s automobile show?"
"I
liked it. I liked the new plug-in hybrids the best."
"I
liked them too,” she replies. “Which ones did you like best, Blakey."
"Right
now, I like the sunny and mild weather — not bad for a third of the way through
January.” He pauses, and matter-of-factly remarks, "We are a go on
33."
Justin
leans forward pushing himself back to sit up straight and adjusting himself to
better observe the instrument needles fluttering as the worn asphalt runway
began to swiftly disappear beneath the fuselage. ‘We are up,’ rests his
anxiety. Justin’s next thought, ’now all we have to do is come down safely.’
An
hour into their flight Blake and Justin were enjoying the meticulous drone of
the Rolls-Royce engine in line with the darker blue above and the gray blue
waters of Lake Erie ten thousand of feet below. Dusk will be around five,
brooded Blake, as the tip of the Cessna Eagle’s left wing appeared to lightly
tap onto an unseen object. He mumbles, “What the hell?”
"Was
it a bird?" asks Pyl cautiously.
Justin
comments, “It sounded like a car tire kicking up a stone."
Blake
picks up the small binoculars for a quick inspection, "There's a crack
near the wing tip light." His puffed lower lip and grouching demeanor lead
to another round nervous of cabin silence into a satisfactory landing at
Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport.
While
Pyl and Blake visually inspect the landing light held fiberglass wingtip of the
parked Cessna more closely Blake observes a minute gray spongy substance within
the slight crack. This is secondary to the reassuring fact that the crack
appears easily repairable.
"What
is that gray stuff?" asks Pyl.
Blake
replies, ”Probably bled out bird gut."
"Scrape
me some," orders Pyl. "I'll have it analyzed. I want to see what kind
of bird was flying that high."
Her
husband Justin moans, "What for? Jeez, Pyl, it’s ground bird guts.”
Pyl
ignores the comment saying, “Justin, get me something to put this in. We were
pretty high for it to be a bird."
At
that point a stranger walks up to the wing and begins inspecting the damage.
Pyl
asks politely, "May I help you?"
"I
saw you coming in. I am interested in buying an old Cessna P210N like this
one."
The
woman has such an odd dialect, thinks Justin as he picks up a small plastic
envelope for Pyl. Noting the stranger’s dark Mediterranean-like eyes, he first
gives Pyl the envelope and then extends his hand, "I'm Justin. This is my
wife, Pyl and that's her brother, Blake, on the stool.” In curiosity Justin
continues, “I’m surprised you just didn’t call the plane, the Eagle or Silver
Eagle, that’s what people who know her usually say.”
The
female marsupial humanoid quickly gathers herself into a warm smile,
"Hello, I’m Fran."
"That's
your name?" questions Pyl.
"Yes,"
as she gave her hand to Pyl she caught her error and adds, "My given name
is Francis Parker, and you are Pill?"
Pyl
giggles, "My brother couldn't pronounce my real name so I have been stuck
with P-y-l ever since."
The
easily disguised humanoid turns slightly and shakes Justin's hand, "And
you are the brother?"
"No,
he's my husband,” answers Pyl. “My brother Blake is inspecting the
damage."
Blake
quibbles business-like, "We think a bird hit the wingtip light. A slight
crack, but it appears repairable."
"I
have a trace of the remains," adds Pyl. "I'm going to have it
analyzed to see what kind of bird it was."
A
slight crack, thinks the humanlike Francis Parker. Ship was considerate with
the tap and would have been more had he not allowed the touch at all.
Interrupting her thoughts Francis says, "Well, good luck making the
repair,” And quickly adds, "Blake, how much would you give for her?"
Pyl
moans, "Daddy would never want us to sell this plane, Blake. She's
family."
Francis
declares, "Upon a decent inspection and fly about, I’ll give you up three
hundred thousand and not a dime more." The human lookalike concludes with
an in-your-face business-like smile.
"Give
me your card. I'll contact you tomorrow," responds Blake.
*****
You
sent Doug a note after he sent you the original one below it is his response
that is right up your alley, so to speak, reality is not so much real as people
usually think and that they would rather not think about. - Amorella
Thanks for the
note, Doug. I dropped it in after I had just put my morning thoughts in the
blog. I have been working on the book once again as I have had the time. Made
more changes. Hope it is better. Thank you for allowing me to include you and
Nancy in the Intro. I am honored.
I don't know
what the significance is of putting as many electrons in the same energy state
as you wish. What does that mean? How does that alter matter?
***
Dick, The spin of the
electron is 1/2. In a given energy level, two states are possible, spin up and
spin down. I can only guess what a no spin electron would do. My guess is
things such as water may not exist!
Thanks for the honor of
being in your Intro.
***
You are having a difficult time putting Doug’s comment into a personal
structure. Let’s go back to a discussion you had with Dr. Paul Payne the
psychologist at the University of Cincinnati in the 1980’s. You said in effect, “Something is not right with how we
view reality; it is not right because we are missing something or we appear to
be missing something in our definition of reality.” This is base on an earlier
intuition that an electron can appear (exist) and then disappear (not exist)
and appear again someplace else (exist). What today’s findings show to you is
reinforcement of the earlier concept. - Amorella
** **
reality – noun
1 distinguishing
fantasy from reality: the
real world, real
life, actuality; truth; physical existence.
ANTONYMS fantasy.
2 the
harsh realities of life: fact,
actuality, truth.
3 the
reality of Steinbeck's detail: verisimilitude,
authenticity, realism, fidelity, faithfulness.
ANTONYMS idealism.
From –
Oxford/American software
** **
What you want to do is to find a way to include this thinking in book
two. Why not have the brothers do a discussion about it based on how you and
Doug talk about such things. Think about it. – Post. Amorella
1535 hours. I like Doug's comment: "My guess such things as water may not exist." Obviously on our normal human level water does exist. However, on some other level it may not. That's what I understand from this. Thus, for the book, on the level of being Dead, water does not exist.