05 December 2014

Notes - pleasantly surprised / only a fool / belief

         Later morning. You had a regular breakfast today. You are better but lacking normal. Arthritic conditions are high because of the cool very damp weather. – Amorella

         1019 hours. I’m okay, Amorella. Let’s let it go. I need to go do my exercises.

         At least Carol found a wreath for the door yesterday. – Amorella

         1022 hours. I asked friends on Facebook to help with finding what she wanted and got lots of good advice. Anyway, after the third day of shopping for one she picked up a very pleasant looking and smelling pine wreath with a few decorative touches. We had been searching with one with led lights and battery operated but most had been sold out. We ended up with one with no lights. I thanked those who gave advice though; it was kind to make suggestions. Facebook has its good aspects. I never thought to ask for help on shopping before and was pleasantly surprised.

         Post. - Amorella


         You had Zoup for lunch, new place; you had seafood chowder and Carol had wedding and you each had half a cheese sandwich. Presently you are at Kroger’s on Mason-Montgomery Road this cool and rainy afternoon. Kroger now has WiFi – check your email, orndorff. – Amorella

         1404 hours. There is a strong signal but too slow to be useful. I wonder if some human passion is a lot like that. I never thought of passion in terms of ‘speed’ – usually it is depth.

         Metaphysics is not speed oriented, boy, not in here at any rate. – Amorella

         1407 hours. “At any rate” has a pun like quality in context – maybe I am thinking rate of speed, not rate of depth.

         In other words, you are mistaken on your ‘pun-like in context’ use. – Amorella

         1410 hours. Yes. You can be straight to the point and usually are.

         Passion can be pointed too. – Amorella

         1414 hours. Is passion the only thing that can drive the Dead, at least in here?

         Human stories of returning or imprisoned ghosts give credence to such events. – Amorella

         You are home in the quiet as Carol is reading; it is as a snowbound Winter afternoon to you at the moment – very cozy and comforting. – Amorella

         1451 hours. I like the atmosphere. I don’t know where Spooky is but Jadah is snuggled in her carrying box, down by the heater vent and between the Christmas tree and the front windows. I hear the ‘Spookster’ in the kitchen. She is much more of a talker than Jadah. It doesn’t feel like there are any ghosts around here, at least at the moment.

         Only your and Carol’s own presences orndorff; everyone has a presence in these books. – Amorella

            ** **
presence – noun

3 a woman of great presence: aura, charisma, (strength/force of) personality; poise, self-assurance, self-confidence.

4 she felt a presence in the castle: ghost, spirit, specter, phantom, apparition, supernatural being; informal spook; literary shade.

• a person or thing that exists or is present in a place but is not seen: the monks became aware of a strange presence.

            and

ghostnoun

an apparition of a dead person that is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image: the building is haunted by the ghost of a monk | figurative : the ghosts of past deeds.

ORIGIN Old English gāst (in the sense ‘spirit, soul’), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch geest and German Geist. The gh- spelling occurs first in Caxton, probably influenced by Flemish gheest .

Selected and edited from a mix of English/American Dictionary software.
            ** **

         1505 hours. It appears to me that you are suggestion (in context) that everyone has an “aura”. This sounds – well, I’ll check the definition first.

         Go ahead, boy, check it. – Amorella

         ** **

auranoun

the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place: the ceremony retains an aura of mystery.

• a supposed emanation surrounding the body of a living creature, viewed by mystics, spiritualists, and some practitioners of complementary medicine as the essence of the individual, and allegedly discernible by people with special sensibilities.

an aura of sophistication: atmosphere, ambience, air, quality, character, mood, feeling, feel, flavor, tone, tenor; emanation; informal vibe.

Selected and edited from a mix of English/American Dictionary software.
            ** **

         1512 hours. I conclude human beings in these books have ‘an ambience of spiritual personality’.

         This is a fair assumption. What else would you call it? – Amorella

         1514 hours. I don’t know but it is not measurable.

         But you have experienced the ‘feeling’ of this quality several times in your life, mostly from your fingertips; examples: holding FDR’s cane at Springs, Georgia, touching a Stonehenge monolith, sleeping in  --, touching the tombstones of Emerson and Dickenson, touching specific photographs of the Dead from Dachau, touching the ‘ancient living tree’ behind Christ’s College, Oxford that inspired Lewis Carol and J.R.R. Tolkien; touching several sacred objects in Westminster Abbey, the Coronation chair being one, the stone that encases the bones of Chaucer another. Touching several objects at the British Museum, the Smithsonian, the New York Museum of Natural History, Canterbury Cathedral, the Washington Cathedral and Uffizi Gallery Museum in Florence. Visiting Churchill’s Bunker Museum in London, holding a piece of clay from the land at the Battle of Agincourt. Walking the grounds of Machu Picchu as well as those at Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Touching the Cuneiform at Rome. Those places and personal experiences of memory exist, no imagination needed. Presences were felt. Do you deny this? – Amorella

         1755 hours. No. However, I think exaggerations of imaginations flared, mostly from my fingertips. Ghosts, I don’t believe so, but spirits and/or presences, not unlike my own, that is, human spirits or presences of spirits other than my own. I would like to deny this outright but that would not be right. However, the senses may not be accurate. This recent out of body experience caused by inner ear problems is an example. The cause was physical yet it was as a metaphysical experience; though I realized it was a manifestation. To touch the stone image of Ozymandias at the British Museum provided me with a sacred moment. Perhaps that is what all of these events were, sacred moments impressed into the fingertips. Perhaps they were nothing but the echoes or slight reverberations from my own spirit. (1806)

         This is a realized, fair enough comment, on what you consider ‘presence’ to be. – Post when convenient. – Amorella

         2036 hours. We watched four hours of television shows – “CSI”, “Elementary”, “Madam Secretary” and “NCIS” as well as NBC News. They were all entertaining though we saw a crime scene location in the woods on the recent “NCIS” that we had seen a couple years ago on “CSI”.  Also, I’ve been thinking about the word “Aura” and need some clarification.

** **
Aura (paranormal)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Human Aura in a healthy woman after a diagram by Walter John Kilner (1847-1920). The picture depicts Kilner's "inner and outer auras." Colours have been added for illustrative purposes and have no other significance.

In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object. The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. It is said that all living things (including humans) and all objects manifest such an aura. Often it is held to be perceptible, whether spontaneously or with practice: such perception is at times linked with the third eye of Indian spirituality. Various writers associate various personality traits with the colors of different layers of the aura. It has also been described as a map of the thoughts and feelings surrounding a person.

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll contend that people may perceive auras because of effects within the brain: synesthesia, epilepsy, migraines or the influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Other causes may include disorders within the visual system provoking optical effects. Eye fatigue can also produce an aura, sometimes referred to as eye burn.

Spiritual traditions

In Iran the aura is known as farr or "glory": it is depicted in association with Zoroastrian kings.

Ideas of the aura are well represented in Indian religions. The Buddhist flag represents the colours seen around the enlightened Buddha. In Jainism the concept of Lesya relates colours to mental and emotional dispositions. To the Indian teacher Meher Baba the aura is of seven colours, associated with the subtle body and its store of mental and emotional impressions. Spiritual practice gradually transforms this aura into a spiritual halo. Hindu and Buddhist sources often link these colours to Kundalina energy and chakras.

In the classical western mysticism of neoplatonism and Kabbalah the aura is associated with the lustre of the astral body, a subtle body identified with the planetary heavens, which were in turn associated with various mental faculties in an elaborate system of correspondences with colours, shapes, sounds, perfumes etc.

According to the literature of Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Archeosophy also, each colour of the aura has a meaning, indicating a precise emotional state. A complete description of the aura and its colours was provided by Charles Leadbeater, a theosophist of the 19th century. The works of Leadbeater were later developed by Palamidessi and others.

The British occultist W.E.Butler connected auras with clairvoyance and etheric, mental and emotional emanations. He classified the aura into two main types: etheric and spiritual. Auras are thought to serve as a visual measure of the state of the health of the physical body. Robert Bruce classifies auras into three types: etheric, main, and spiritual. According to Bruce auras are not actual light but a translation of other unknown sensory readings that is added to our visual processing. They are not seen in complete darkness and cannot be seen unless some portion of the person or object emitting the aura can also be seen. The British Healer, clairvoyant and author Paul Lambillion in his book "Auras and Colours" writes of three visible bodies or layers in the auric field that can be observed whether or not in the physical presence of the individual subject since the aura is not a three dimensional phenomenon and limited to such parameters. (see also Sunday Times May 2011 and Transformations Channel 4 TV 1990)

Glenn Morris, grandmaster of the Hoshin Roshi Ryu lineage, included perception of the aura in his training of advanced martial artists. His experience was that it consisted of multiple layers. He described the most easily visible of these as being "light and denser than the air in which the body is immersed", typically half to quarter of an inch thick and correlating with the etheric body of an individual. Around this he described a yard thick egg-shaped layer reflecting hormonal state that he linked to the emotional body, and outside this, other barely perceptible layers corresponding to the mental body and beyond. Recalling the aura of another  soke, he wrote, "The first time I saw Hatsumi, he was running continuous bright, lime, neon green a foot wide and was so easy to see he would flash in bright sunlight".

For holistic healers, aura reading is the art of investigating the human energy field, or the energy fields of other sentient beings. It is a basis for using techniques of holistic healing, and includes such practices as bioenergetics, energy medicine, energy spirituality and energy psychology.

Tests

Tests of psychic abilities to observe alleged aura emanations have repeatedly met with failure.

One test involved placing people in a dark room and asking the psychic to state how many auras she could observe. Only chance results were obtained.

Recognition of auras has occasionally been tested on television. One test involved an aura reader standing on one side of a room with an opaque partition separating her from a number of slots, which might contain either actual people or mannequins. The aura reader failed to identify the slots containing people, incorrectly stating that all contained people.

In another televised test another aura reader was placed before a partition where five people were standing. He claimed that he could see their auras from behind the partition. As each person moved out, the reader was asked to identify where that person was standing behind the slot. He identified only 2 out of 5 correctly.

Explanation

Bridgette Perez in a review for the Skeptical Inquirer has written "perceptual distortions, illusions, and hallucinations might promote belief in auras... Psychological factors, including absorption, fantasy proneness, vividness of visual imagery, and after-images, might also be responsible for the phenomena of the aura." Another explanation for the belief in auras, given that there is no scientific evidence for their reality, could be cases of synesthesia. However, a 2012 study discovered no link concluding "the discrepancies found suggest that both phenomena are phenomenologically and behaviourally dissimilar." Clinical neurologist Steven Novella has written "Given the weight of the evidence it seems that the connection between auras and synaesthesia is speculative and based on superficial similarities that are likely coincidental.

Selected and edited from Wikipedia – Aura (Paranormal)
** **

         2110 hours. I tend to agree with the critics and skeptics. The simplest explanation is that my brain functioning accounts for this. However, the sense of the experience appears real enough, i.e. it is a personal reality and not entirely different from a sense within a vivid dream. These experiences have added to my sense of reality. If someone were able to scientifically prove a human aura exists, I would smile to myself and quietly think, ‘I knew that.’ However, I cannot imagine anyone proving the aura exists any more than anyone can scientifically prove ghosts or spirits exist. To each their own. – rho

         You find it disconcerting that I, the Amorella, can exist within or a within a separate part of yourself and that I have directed much of your writing of the Merlyn books you have posted your legal name to. A part of you understands that from one perspective, that is the works, the books and the blog, show evidence of my existence. – Amorella

         2139 hours. Yes. This is disconcerting. I cannot explain myself rationally, but then, I don’t think any human being can explain (know) her or himself rationally. Only a fool would think this possible.

         Post. - Amorella


         You decided, on a lark, to retake the Belief-O-Matic quiz at Belief-O-Matic DOT Com. You did your study of the questions and are somewhat consistent with all earlier results. Unitarian Universalist has been in your top three or four since first taking the quiz around 2001. Until now Reformed Judaism and Liberal Quaker have been the consistent other two, usually Reformed Judaism has been 100 percent, this time it is Unitarian Universalist with Taoism being two at 78 percent; Neo-Paganism being three at 74 percent; New Age being four at 73 percent; Secular Humanism, four at 70 percent; Liberal Quaker, five, at 69 percent; Sikhism, six at 66 percent and Reformed Judaism, seven at 64 percent. – What do you think of this, orndorff? – Amorella

         2220 hours. I am surprised. Here is what Belief-O-Matic says about the Unitarian Universalist:

** **
What is Unitarian Universalist?

Central tenets of this faith, based on questions in the Belief-O-Matic quiz:

Belief in Deity
  Very diverse beliefs--Unitarian/Universalists welcome all deity beliefs as well as non-theistic beliefs. Some congregations are formed for those who share a common belief, e.g. Christianity.

Incarnations 
 Very diverse beliefs, including belief in no incarnations, or that all are the embodiment of God. Some believe Christ's is God's Son, or not Son but "Wayshower."

After Death
  Diverse beliefs, but most believe that heaven and hell are not places but are symbolic. Some believe heaven and hell are states of consciousness either in life or continuing after death; some believe in reincarnation; some believe that afterlife is nonexistent or not known or not important, as actions in life are all that matter.

Salvation
  Some believe in salvation through faith in God and Jesus Christ, along with doing good works and doing no harm to others. Many believe all will be saved, as God is good and forgiving. Some believe in reincarnation and the necessity to eliminate personal greed or to learn all of life’s lessons before achieving enlightenment or salvation. For some, the concepts of salvation or enlightenment are irrelevant or disbelieved.

Undeserving Suffering  
Diverse beliefs. Most Unitarians do not believe that Satan causes suffering. Some believe suffering is part of God’s plan, will, or design, even if we don’t immediately understand it. Some don’t believe in any spiritual reasons for suffering, and most take a humanistic approach to helping those in need.

Contemporary Issues
  The Unitarian Universalist Association’s stance is to protect the personal right to choose abortion. Other contemporary views include working for equality for homosexuals, gender equality, a secular approach to divorce and remarriage, working to end poverty, promoting peace and nonviolence, and environmental protection.

From Belief O Matic DOT Com
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         2229 hours. After reading the above I find nothing objectionable to me. I would probably be socially and spiritually comfortable in such an organization if I went to a church, which I do not. I am by most personal accounts an existential transcendentalist at present with the existentialist as the adjective. – rho

         In context here, this is how you accept yourself spiritually. I am still here, boy and am not about to go away. Your friend, Amorella. Post. 

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